CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A subcommittee of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department tasked with considering a letter-grade system for inspecting restaurants now has eight public notification systems to think about.

It’s an equation that seems simple but still escapes many restaurateurs: Treat your employees well, and your business will be better for it. Offering restaurant workers good pay, benefits and career mobility usually translates into high short-term costs -- a burden that causes many low-margin eateries to underpay and overwork their employees.

The son of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been hospitalized with food poisoning in the Black Sea city of Odessa, French and Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. Pierre Sarkozy, a rap producer in his twenties, has been taken to a hospital after feeling ill, French Embassy spokesman Emmanuel Berard told The Associated Press.

Nothing affects everyday people every day more than the food they eat. So stories about food generate lots of interest. Of course, we all want our meals to be safe, and the industry takes precautions to try to ensure that happens, but in produce safety, there are a lot of misunderstandings and wrong things being said today that have the potential to do more harm than good.

SHEFFIELD -- A government investigation of the herd suspected of being the source of a single case of a rare bacterial disease has so far not located the germ at Twin Rivers Farm, although officials say the "thorough" search has not yet surveyed all cows and milk.

Abstract

Tomorrow’s USA Today runs competing editorials on the value of food safety audits, with the editorial board coming out swinging referring to the listeria-in-cantaloupe mess that killed at least 30 last year: “You'd think that the deadliest food-borne outbreak in nearly 90 years would change the way business is done in the produce industry. No such luck.”

I was going to bring along my tip-sensitive digital thermometer and help-out at a sausage sizzle for the kids today before tomorrow’s national holiday, but days of rain have thwarted any plans for the barbie.

The social media thing sounds sorta cool until customers complain that your food makes people vomit, you serve pig meat from gestation crates and a burger containing a finger nail. And it’s all on Twitter for anyone to see.