Mark Parsons, Restaurant Sanitarian with the City of Austin's Health and Human Services Department describes the restaurant inspection process.

Traditional French cheese is apparently as much about scantily-clad young women as it is about camembert, roquefort and brie.

New figures show raw-milk cheeses from rural France, which until the Second World War accounted for nearly all consumption, now make up just seven per cent of those eaten.

The Association Fromages de Terroirs (AFT), which aims to protect France’s traditional cheese culture, is now trying to fight back with a series of posters of “Fromgirls”, displaying women working in the industry.

Veronique Richez-Lerouge, of the AFT, said,

“The French have forgotten what real cheese is like. Buying cheese has become like buying a box of washing powder.”

Globalisation and safety regulations introduced by the European Union have played a part. Pasteurisation – the germ killing process – has helped wipe out many raw-milk cheeses. Workers are also eating more quick snacks at lunchtime, rather than sitting down to meals in traditional restaurants, whose cheese trolleys helped to forge the French national identity.

The Brisbane Times reports that by November, all of Brisbane, Australia’s 6,000 eateries will be "voluntarily encouraged" by public pressure to display their restaurant inspection ratings, between zero and five stars.

The stars will only judge the hygiene and food safety standards used to make meals.

David Pugh, owner of Restaurant 2 and vice-president of Restaurant Catering Queensland, said the restaurant industry backed the scheme, adding,

"In fact we see it as a bit of bonus, because if you command three, four, five stars, you might get more foot traffic coming through the door. The reality is that the public want this."

A restaurant dude who gets it. Good for him.

Under the new Eat Safe scheme:

• no stars would mean the eatery had not met the hygiene standards of the Food Act 2006 and Food Safety Standards;

• two stars would mean the business had a low level of compliance with food safety standards and "more effort is required;"

• three stars would mean the eatery was a "good performer" that met food safety standards with an overall acceptable level of food safety.;

• four stars would be awarded to a "very good" performer with high food hygiene; and,

• five stars means the eatery has "excellent hygiene" with very high standards in food refrigeration and storage.

This is a blog post from our friend in France, Albert Amgar, translated by Kansas State French professor Amy Hubbell and the students in FREN 530: French Translation.

Labels, logos, and scores on doors have come up several times on this blog.

According to leParisien.fr on February 24, 2010 in "Asian restaurants are asked to take more care with their cooking," the Asian restaurant union is asking 12,000 caterers and restaurateurs to improve their food safety and quality. Their goal is to improve their ratings and it is not being met.

The “Quality Asia” label was created in October 2005 and it is given to Asian, Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese restaurants and caterers whose cleanliness is certified. Five years later, only 12 addresses in the Parisian region and 5 in the rest of France (primarily in the North - AA) have been awarded this label. That's a small number considering there are 12,000 food professionals in France and 8,000 in the Parisian region alone.

According to the website of the Asian Restaurant and Catering Union, the first audit is performed by an independent agency that checks the establishments' performance and gives certification.

What is included in the Quality Asia Label?
- Welcoming guests according to traditions
- Offering and cooking Asian flavors from different regions according to European regulations
- Following the guidelines on the Quality Charter
- Submitting to a quality control every two years
- Making comment cards available to clients

What are the criteria for quality?

The first audit checks 142 control points of which 30 are reserved for the kitchen. These points are aimed at the welcome, the quality of management, service, delivery, proportion of quality to price, general cleanliness, general ambiance, facilities, materials, equipment, storage, preparation, expiration dates, traceability, safety and many other elements that ensure quality to the clients.

To be given the label, the food professional must receive 85% on the evaluation.

A new test is given every two years to check changes in the establishment and to ascertain whether the service is consistent with the label requirements and the demands of Quality Charter.

Restaurants with the label are recognized in several ways that attest to their quality:
How can you spot them? There are several ways: the logo, the Quality Charter, the certificate, and the customer satisfaction cards. You can find the restaurants here.

I keep meaning to start my seedlings for the garden, which I should have done weeks ago. But it has been unseasonably cold and, after four years in Kansas, I’m liking the warmer weather. So bring it on. ‘Tis the season. And maybe I’ll get motivated.

With others in the U.S. also starting their seedlings there is the usual nonsense about how home-grown is safer. That depends on who is crapping in the garden. But apparently, I should be more concerned about playing with the potting soil.

Eurosurveillance reports today that three cases of Legionnaires’ disease caused by Legionella longbeachae Sg 1 associated with potting compost have been reported in Scotland between 2008 and 2009. The exact method of transmission is still not fully understood as Legionnaires’ disease is thought to be acquired by droplet inhalation. The linked cases associated with compost exposure call for an introduction of compost labelling, as is already in place in other countries where L. longbeachae outbreaks have been reported.

It has been reported that various Legionella strains have been isolated from different types of potting soils including peat. In Australia, where cases and outbreaks of L. longbeachae have been reported, the standards for composts, soil conditioners and mulches provide clear guidance to commercial producers of compost on how to process organic materials into compost in a safe and effective way. These standards also include requirements for labelling bags and promoting safe and healthy gardening practices. Public health advice includes the risk of Legionnaires’ disease following exposure to compost or potting soil.

The cases reported here emphasize the need for a voluntary use in the UK of an industry-agreed warning label for potting soil, as the risk of Legionnaires’ disease associated with compost is now clearly identified.

It’s like a bad Lifetime special movie event:

Randall Rahal, a New Jersey businessman who acted as a broker for SK Foods in peddling crappy tomato paste, recounted how he would drop a $100 bill on the floor, then bend to pick it up, saying: “You must have dropped this. Is it yours?”

If the person said yes, Mr. Rahal considered him receptive.

For all the talk of food safety, food is still a commodity that can be traded and bartered with no concern for microbiological consequences, and apparently on the bend-and-snap.

And a lot of the culprits seem housed in the biggest food companies.

As the N.Y. Times reports this morning, Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, needed $20,000 to pay his taxes. So he called a broker for a California tomato processor that for years had been paying him bribes to get its products into Kraft’s plants.

The check would soon be in the mail, the broker promised. “We’ll have to deduct it out of your commissions as we move forward,” he said, using a euphemism for bribes.

Days later, federal agents descended on Kraft’s offices near Chicago and confronted Mr. Watson. He admitted his role in a bribery scheme that has laid bare a startling vein of corruption in the food industry. And because the scheme also involved millions of pounds of tomato products with high levels of mold or other defects, the case has raised serious questions about how well food manufacturers safeguard the quality of their ingredients.

Over the last 14 months, Mr. Watson and three other purchasing managers, at Frito-Lay, Safeway and B&G Foods, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes. Five people connected to one of the nation’s largest tomato processors, SK Foods, have also admitted taking part in the scheme.

Now, federal prosecutors in California have taken aim at the owner of SK Foods, who they say spearheaded the far-reaching plot. The man, Frederick Scott Salyer, was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City on Feb. 4 after getting off a flight from Switzerland. He was indicted last week on racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice charges.

The scheme, as laid out by federal prosecutors, has two parts. Officials say that Mr. Salyer and others at SK Foods greased the palms of a handful of corporate buyers in exchange for lucrative contracts and confidential information on bids submitted by competitors. This most likely drove up ingredient prices for the big food companies.

In addition, prosecutors say that for years, SK Foods shipped its customers millions of pounds of bulk tomato paste and puree that fell short of basic quality standards — with falsified documentation to mask the problems. Often that meant mold counts so high the sale should have been prohibited under federal law; at other times it involved breaching specifications in the sales contracts, such as acidity levels or the age of the product.

The scope of the tainted shipments was much broader than the bribery scheme, touching more than 55 companies. In some cases, companies detected problems and sent the products back — but in many cases, according to prosecutors, they did not, and the tainted ingredients wound up in food sold to consumers.

Prosecutors said that no one was sickened by the mold-tainted products and that they were not a health risk.

But it gets back to a key point I keep reiterating – companies that rely on outside auditors do themselves a disservice – and put their brand at risk – if they don’t have the in-house food safety expertise to assess whether they’re being fed nonsense or not.

Mold count is fairly basic with tomatoes.

Randy W. Worobo, an associate professor of food microbiology at Cornell University, said companies should learn from the SK Foods case that they must do a better job of monitoring their ingredients.

“There’s been a lot of hype about inferior-quality products being made in China and then sold to the U.S. consumer. This is exactly the same thing, but it’s based in the U.S.”

Kraft, the nation’s largest food manufacturer, appears to have been among the biggest companies skimmed by the bribes. Court papers say that Kraft bought about 230 million pounds of processed tomatoes from SK Foods from 2004 to 2008, as Mr. Watson took $158,000 in bribes.

Michael P. Doyle, the director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, said there had been several cases in recent years in which ingredient suppliers were suspected of falsifying documentation to mask quality or safety faults in foods, especially with imports. He said that should make companies more aggressive in testing, not only to guard against pathogens but also to check quality.

“As a consumer I wouldn’t want to have moldy tomatoes in my tomato ketchup or my tomato products,” Dr. Doyle said.

Italian restaurants are best when dining with little kids. Maybe it’s a cultural stereotype, but I always found Italian eateries were more welcoming to the screaming, barfing and flirting that toddlers bring to the dining experience.

French restaurants? The worst.

Proponents of doggie dining often state that restaurants allow germ-spewing little kids inside so why not dogs?

Richard Vines of Bloomberg decided to check on the acceptability of children at London’s fancy foodie restaurants. Vines called 30 establishments, asking if a pair of kids aged 2 and 7 would be admitted, whether there were high chairs and about the availability of special menus. With few exceptions, each was child friendly.

Among the responses:

L’Anima: “Yes, we allow children. We have high chairs. When you come here we can arrange something with the chef.”

What if your kid hates high chairs for anything more than 3 minute stretches?

Bob Ricard: “We’re not allowing children under 10 years old. There are no special menus.”

The Ivy: “It’s fine. Any age. We have high chairs. We can adapt dishes for children.”

Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley: “Children are welcome but if kids get a bit restless and unhappy you might be asked to take them outside for a while. We can arrange a high chair if you let us know in advance. Our team can adjust the dishes for children.”

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay: “Children are welcome but babies are not recommended because the restaurant is quite small so we don’t have space for high chairs or push chairs.” What age would be OK? “I would say maybe seven or 10 years onwards. We don’t have kids’ menus but we will be able to offer something suitable.”

I find so-called fancy food is lost on little kids. They’d rather eat the crayons at Chuck-E-Cheese, although those places seem prone to violence.

The most mentioned simple food for kids was something around $7 for a bowl of pasta; who can afford that? That's Sorenne (above, right)  in a gratuitious food porn shot with a simple bowl of rotini and a homemade tomato-veggie sauce during the U.S.-Canada hockey debacle Sunday night. Tonight, we’re going upscale with grilled tuna loins, although Sorenne will be again wearing her Ovechkin jersey (left) as Russia takes on Canada in the Olympic quarter-finals.

Dr. Dan Upson presented ‘Efficient Use of Earth’s Resources: Providing Food for the World’s People’ last night at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. The presentation brought the production of food back to the basics of biology, from the basics of photosynthesis and fertilization of the soil to the formation of glucose to make energy. Dr. Upson explored the properties of energy sources like starch and cellulose, pointing out that ruminants are the only ones able to utilize the energy contained in cellulose. This emphasized the importance of the ruminant animal in our growing population and the need to continue research to improve beef production.

These topics highlighted the current state of the agriculture industry, which has come under attack in recent years for utilizing technology to improve production methods.

Canwest News Service reports that more than one-third of 424 food operations serving the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games in Richmond, Vancouver, at Cypress Bowl in West Vancouver, and Whistler did not fully meet health regulations, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority inspection reports show.

Of the 147 food operations not compliant in one or more aspects of their operations, 56, or 38 per cent, were specifically cited for "potentially hazardous food" concerns, including failure to thaw food properly and failure to maintain food at sufficiently low or high temperatures, a review by the Vancouver Sun has found.

The food operations include temporary facilities serving the public, athletes, media, dignitaries, volunteers and other workers, and can range from restaurant-style operations to smaller concessions and even beer vendors and hotdog stands.

Food service has been farmed out to caterers at the various Olympic venues that are not permanent sites.

Vancouver restaurants typically receive one visit annually from health inspectors. Olympic food venues were generally visited three times by inspectors in February alone, evidence of the extra measure of vigilance underway to guard against an outbreak of food-borne illness during the Games.

Domenic Losito, regional director of environmental health, said in an interview Tuesday, said,

"We're keeping our fingers crossed that we get through without any adverse impact on people. So far, we seem to be on top of it."