How safe are restaurants really?
The story plastered all over the front page of my local newspaper today is about food safety -- more specifically, how 48 restaurants in my city have failed standard inspections. After checking the list, I was relieved to find that none of my regular eating spots made the list, but the article nonetheless scared me. I just spent the long weekend in the kitchen with a close friend who runs a cafe, and while she is an amazingly clean and diligent restaurateur, I can see how easy it would be to be for someone lazy or indifferent to let cleaning duties fall behind, putting patrons in danger. This made me start thinking about eating in restaurants and what we can do to protect ourselves. I personally eat out probably twice a week for lunch and twice a week for dinner -- four meals per week means four chances to get sick because of someone else's mistakes. Food safety organizations seem to be looking out for us, but are they doing enough? Are we putting too much trust in other people to watch what we eat? Or am I just being paranoid?
What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-11-2006 @ 4:27PM
Rhea said...
I don't think you're paranoid at all. I eat out a good deal, like you. Honestly, I think we are very lucky when we do not get sick. Think of how many people handle your food and how poor the hygiene is in many restaurant kitchens. I check the food inspections records in my city, too. Gross.
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10-11-2006 @ 4:33PM
Adam said...
My father owned a restaurant for 10 years and I worked there for 6 I know that we never had any issues with inspections that came through.
The variable is usually the inspectors themselves, some become friends with the owners/managers and give them a days notice that they are going to be coming in or just give owners warnings and not fines. I found this out when I worked at a different restaurant that I worked at.
Other than franchises, restaurants only have a 5% chance of making longer than 5 years. So it seems that low profits lead to cutting corners witch will lead to unclean food practices = sick people.
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