Last night’s show.
Posts Tagged ‘food safety’
“US to lift 21-year ban on haggis”
P.S. Not unrelatedly, a haggis-related Blawg Review #248 at Scots Law Student. More: Alex Massie, Spectator (via Katherine Mangu-Ward).
P.P.S. Jumping the gun? An email to Andrew Sullivan from someone claiming to be with USDA says the ban is under review for revision but that no decision has been made yet. And more from Katherine Mangu-Ward.
Prizes baked into food, cont’d
The New York Times has more on the customs surrounding the traditional French galette des rois baked with little figurines inside, though it does not get into the possible legal or regulatory angles that might prohibit placing such items in interstate commerce. In this case they’re prepared by a licensed home baker in Larchmont, N.Y. For the cases of New Orleans king cake, Christmas puddings, Kinder Surprise candy, etc., see earlier posts.
P.S. For more on Epiphany traditions of “Twelfth Cake,” see Christine Lalumia/BBC, David Zincavage, and KatInTheCupboard/Flickr (1937 children’s book).
Legal in Canada, illegal in U.S.
More about the toy-in-chocolate Kinder Surprise [CanWest via Free-Range Kids; earlier, related]
P.S. In comments, Moriarty notes an instance in which various brands of American soda pop turned out to be illegal to sell in Canada (even aside from their lack of French-language labeling).
“Bagel-related injuries”
Beware brunch. [Richard Goldfarb, Food Liability Law Blog]
“The Charcuterie Underground”
Outlaw meats in Chicago [The Reader] And Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason reports on the continuing legal travails of food trucks.
“British Restaurant Makes Customers Sign Plum Pudding Release”
The High Timber restaurant in London is seeking to protect 
itself because it follows the traditional practice of including the occasional coin or silver charm for lucky diners to happen upon. [Zincavage] Similarly in this 2005 dispatch (supermarket pudding); for the parallel custom of baking figurines into New Orleans king cake, see these posts.
Update: FDA backs off raw oyster ban
Following a huge outcry in Louisiana and elsewhere (see Oct. 28; Slashfood, Washington Times, Ryan Young/CEI), the agency will reconsider the rule. The uber-nannyish Center for Science in the Public Interest was dismayed at the delay [BayouBuzz], while the New Orleans publication Gambit, which calls the episode “a glaring example of bureaucratic overkill,” warns that after finishing further study the FDA “could still return with its faulty reasoning.” Nancy Leson at the Seattle Times passes on word from a Northwest shellfish official: “We were told by FDA officials that initially, they were planning to mandate post-harvest treatment of all oysters, and at the last minute they decided to just stick to Gulf oysters — for now.” And ubiquitous food-poisoning lawyer Bill Marler, whose publicity juggernaut rolls on* (recent Seattle Times profile — “I represent poisoned little children against giant corporations”), feels like he’s been wasting a fortune:
…let me make clear that I dumped a lot of “change” into the Democratic change wagon – I have given or raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidates over the last several years. My goal was to put people in office that did good public policy. Well, I guess I needed to wake up literally and figuratively. … Now, the FDA runs and hides from the Oyster industry. … Democratic candidates – do not bother calling, this “change” machine is out of order.
*Marketing disclosure for the FTC’s benefit: when I spoke at the recent AEI food safety panel an employee of one of Marler’s journalistic enterprises presented me with one of his promotional t-shirts.
Authentic handmade Chinese noodles
Yet another interesting food that may never be the same following a safety crackdown, in this case by the Los Angeles health department [L.A. Times via Katherine Mangu-Ward, Crispy on the Outside]
FDA vs. fresh oysters
Remember how the food safety crackdown was going to be a win-win affair for all of us, with only the sinister interests of Big Food having anything real to lose? New Orleans Times-Picayune:
In an effort to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially fatal, bacterial illness contracted from raw oysters, the FDA announced new rules this month that will require any oyster served from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before it can be sold in restaurants or on the market.
The rule will essentially eliminate raw oysters — at least as Louisianans know them — from restaurant menus for seven months of the year. Even oysters that will eventually be cooked during those months would have to go through the same cleansing process before being added to any dish, a move some say would undermine the culinary integrity of some of New Orleans’ most famous delicacies. …
C.J. Casamento, the owner of Casamento’s restaurant on Magazine Street, said many chefs have tried the sterilized oysters in the past but have stopped because the flavor isn’t the same. … “If they try to implement this, it will destroy all the raw oyster restaurants in the city.”
Another restaurant owner, Tommy Cvitanovich of Drago’s, called the rules “ludicrous”, pointing out that they will also require sterilization of oysters destined for cooked use in gumbos, broils and po’ boys. Processor Mike Voisin compared the new guidelines to a “nuclear bomb” on the oyster business. And Louisiana state health officials, as well as fisheries officials, have assailed the new rules as going too far.