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Volume 7, Issue 26 June 30, 2007 |
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Weekly News in Review
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| Safeway groceries one step closer to consumer in restaurant |
Safeway Inc has opened a restaurant in Redwood City, San Francisco with no fanfare. Inside Bay Area reported that the restaurant, called Citrine, was opened without a word of advertising or publicity as a test for the grocery chain to look for more ways to sell prepared foods.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: Octomedia pty ltd |
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| French Laundry serves `Ratatouille' |
For someone who works at a restaurant, watching a rat try to become a chef might seem like just another day at work.
For movie audiences, a rat with culinary aspirations might be more appealing. Especially if it is a rat that chef Thomas Keller helped teach to cook.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: San Jose Mercury News |
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| Dubai to knock back Hooters plan |
Many could see huge success awaiting, with the first Hooters expecting to open later this year. Then along came the Dubai Department of Economic Development.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: Intown Entertainment |
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| McDonald's makeover in Europe increases sales |
In this German hamlet 15 miles south of Munich, McDonald's Corp. is conducting an experiment that counters the fast-food, drive-through image of the world's biggest restaurant company.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: Reuters |
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| Pizzerias hit with higher cheese costs |
Before the dinnertime rush, Larry Lewis was chewing over business strategy at the Fat Jimmy's pizzeria he manages. The store had absorbed sharply rising cheese prices as long as possible.
It was time to hike the price on pizzas and pass along some of the expense that had been eating into profits the past few months.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: The Associated Press |
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| Bob Evans remembered as family man, entrepreneur, conservationist |
Bob Evans, the southeast Ohio farmer who started the restaurant chain that bears his name, was remembered at a funeral service Tuesday as a good-humored family man, conservationist and entrepreneur who built a corporation that employed tens of thousands.
Evans died Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic of complications from pneumonia. He was 89.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: Associated Press |
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| Chef Sues Over Intellectual Property (the Menu) |
Sometimes, Rebecca Charles wishes she were a little less influential. She was, she asserts, the first chef in New York who took lobster rolls, fried clams and other sturdy utility players of New England seafood cookery and lifted them to all-star status on her menu.
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Read Article Browse All News | Source: NY Times |
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More News | Casual Dining News | QSR News | Fast Casual News | Manufacturer News
Be sure to visit Foodservice.com daily for the latest industry news!
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| For information about sponsoring this newsletter, please visit our Marketing Center |
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Cooking and Pasteurizing for Safer Foods
By Lacie Thrall
We cook food to enhance palatability, flavor, and texture, but mainly to make it safe to eat. Many raw foods contain pathogens that can make us sick. Most cookbooks do discuss the time and temperature necessary to cook food, but usually do not address it as food safety. Too much cooking or too much time (or both) overcooks foods such as meat, fish, or poultry. When you overcook meat for example, the fibrous proteins in it become solid, dense, and dry. Other foods become mush. We need a happy compromise between getting the food cooked, keeping it nutritional, moist, tender and safe.
Pasteur’s contribution—Thanks to early scientists such as Louis Pasteur, the human race learned in 1862 about heating foods to kill natural pathogens and retard spoilage organisms that can make us sick. Pasteur is known for developing the method to “pasteurize” milk and wine so it would not sour or turn rancid, not to mention solving other bacteriological mysteries. He combined lower heating temperatures and longer times at that temperature to accomplish a food safety factor without boiling. Before milk was routinely pasteurized, it spread tuberculosis, brucellosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria and scarlet fever. Pasteurized milk made its debut in the USA in the 1880’s, but took over 30 years (1920) to gain full acceptance.
Pasteurization is a kind of compromise. If you boil a food, you can kill all bacteria and make the food sterile, but you often significantly affect the taste and nutritional value of the food. When you pasteurize a food, what you are doing is heating it to a high enough temperature to kill certain (but not all) bacteria and to disable certain enzymes, and in return you are minimizing the effects on taste as much as you can. Milk can be pasteurized by heating to 145 degrees F (62.8° C) for half an hour or 161° F (72° C) for 15 seconds. Other combinations of time and temperature can do the same thing, just like when we cook foods. One key point: some foods that are time and temperature abused to start with allowing toxin creation (such as staph aureus) in food may not inactivate the toxin at pasteurization temperatures although it kills the bacteria.
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"Don't ever confuse activity with accomplishment."
- Gene Stallings
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Employee Health - Part 5- Responsibilities of the Permit Holder, Person in Charge, Food Employee and Conditional Employees
Our goal for writing these articles is to give you, the operator, a better understanding of the current 2005 FDA Food Code.
Question: I am interviewing a new employee, can I ask them any questions pertaining to their health status?
Answer:
The purpose of employee health observations are to reduce the likelihood that certain viral and bacterial agents will not be transmitted from the infected food workers into the food. The agents of concern are known to be readily transmissible via food that has been contaminated by ill food workers. Over the next few months we’ll explore Chapter Two of the 2005 Food Code.
NO! Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits medical examinations and inquiries as to the existence, nature, or severity of a disability before extending a conditional offer of employment. In order for the permit holder and the person in charge to be in compliance with this particular aspect of the Code and the ADA, a conditional job offer must be made before making inquiries about the applicant’s health status. When the conditional offer is made to the prospective employee you may then ask them detailed health questions. See Form 1-A in Annex 7.
Details Available in our Food Safety Area
For further information, contact your local, regional or state regulatory agency.
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View updated pricing and information each week on the website for the following food-commodity markets:
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Beef, Veal & Lamb |
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The June 1st US cattle in feedlot inventory was .8% larger than last year. May cattle placements into feedlots were 13% more than 2006. However, the June near slaughter ready cattle inventory was estimated to be 7% less than last year and virtually even with the 3 year average for the month. Slaughter ready cattle availability is forecasted to remain tight compared to a year ago through the summer causing beef output to track 1-2% below 2006 levels. The cattle and most of the beef markets continue to trend downward but are anticipated to steady before long. Prices per pound FOB from USDA.
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Dairy |
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Milk cow slaughter during May was 7.9% larger than a year ago but .7% less than the 2000-07 average. Inflated milk prices have caused milk farmer margins to improve which should mitigate the US milk cow slaughter this summer. The cheese markets appear to be stabilizing as buyers reserve purchases for immediate needs. Relatively elevated cheese prices are forecasted to persevere throughout the month of July. May 31st American cheese holdings were 4% less than the previous year. Prices per pound, except Class I Cream (hundred weight), from USDA.
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Poultry |
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The May broiler type chick hatch was 3% larger than last year adding fuel to expectations of a notable year over year chicken production increase this summer. Chicken output during the next 3 months is forecasted to track 2-3% above last year?s levels. May 31st total chicken stocks were 23% less than 2006 and historically small. May 31st chicken breast (15%), leg quarter (41%), thigh (16%) and wing (13%) holdings were all lower than a year ago. Relatively tight frozen chicken stocks could temper forthcoming chicken market decreases over the next month. Prices per pound except eggs (dozen) FOB from USDA.
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Seafood |
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2007-08 (June 1 to May 31) western US Gulf of Mexico brown shrimp production is forecasted by the NOAA at 58.8 million pounds, roughly 4% more than the 45 year average. However, any shrimp output increases could be tempered this summer as reduced fishermen profits may limit fishing. Still, engaging shrimp prices are likely to persist. Prices for fresh product, unless noted per pound from Fisheries Market News.
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Pork |
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Pork output last week rose .3% and was 6.6% larger than last year. Pork processors are slowing pork production this week due to poor margins. Many of the pork markets are declining as demand seasonally wanes. The rib markets should track lower in July. Last year the baby back rib market fell 25% during the next 4 weeks. May 31st pork rib (20%) and belly (3%) stocks were both less than the prior year while ham supplies were 33% more than 2006. Prices per pound FOB from USDA.
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Produce |
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Iceberg lettuce supplies are improving with shipments last week rising 7% from the prior week. Steady to lower iceberg lettuce prices are anticipated during the next 10 days. Avocado stocks remain limited as imports from Mexico decline. Avocado prices may remain at relatively elevated levels through the summer due to last winter?s freeze damage in California. Yellow onion supplies should improve as July advances but onion prices are likely to remain above normalized levels. Prices shipping point unless noted (terminal) FOB from USDA
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Oil and Grains |
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The hard red winter wheat harvest is significantly behind prior years due to adverse weather. Fairly inflated wheat prices are projected to persevere. Prices per pound (oils) or bushel (grains) FOB from USDA.
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Canned and Frozen Food |
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Tomato Products, Canned - The 2007 tomato for canning harvest is underway. Output will expand as July progresses reaching peak levels in August. Suppliers will attempt to pass on raw product cost increases to buyers this summer. Price per case (6/10) FOB from Supply and Market Report.
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Processed Fruits and Vegetables - The 2007 major vegetable for processing harvest has begun under mostly good conditions. Canned vegetable price increases are likely pending. Prices FOB per case from Supply and Market Report.
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The Employment Center is your gateway
for posting job listings or your resume
into 3 of the most
popular sites
in the foodservice industry.
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Fourth of July **
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The holiday falls on a Wednesday this year.
I wondered how some of you are working this one out for maximum benefit since turning it into a three day holiday doesn't seem to feasible.
Are you doing celebrations before or after Wednesday?
Are you closing early or not even going to open?
Are you open normal hours?
At one store, We are passing out free hot dogs to the kids from 12-3 pm.
Got a large grill provided for "free" in exchange for some advertising in our newletter and tabletops.
At one store we will close early on Mon Tues and Wed.
The other store will be open normal hours except Wednesday.
It says in the newsletter 3 pm or till we run out of hot dogs. Please bring lots of kids!
(This is the day we claimed Independence from the King, taxation without representation and burdensome government regulations . Fat lot of good that did us.)
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Sandwich meat quantity or scarifice of feet?
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I've been asked to put together 160 sack lunches for an event that by daughter is in charge of. This isn't something we would normally do, (we are a dinner house) but it's my daughter, and the last two years the locals have really let her down......... not to mention that I'm a sucker for the "Mom, you have to do this for me, I want it done right this year" that I just heard this morning.
So, can you folks help me throw my cost estimate/order together? I'd like to be relatively close as I can't absorb leftovers in our menu. How many ounces make a good, fat sandwich for a fishing event?
Your answers will save me a 30 minute trip (one way) into town, and traipsing around the asphalt and concrete on my poor feet just so I can get a visual in my simple little mind for estimating purposes.
And today, I'm all about saving the feet for 9-10 hours of lino pounding I must do tonight!
Thanks.
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I am probably most famous as a stick
I am probably most famous as a stick, although I have recently been seen in Buffalo with chicken parts. It all started when my wild ancestors were cultivated in the 16th century. Long considered a powerful aphrodisiac, my leaves were used by the Greeks to adorn the crown presented to victorious athletes. These stars also drank my wine. The Romans used me as a seasoning and as an elixir to aide digestion and soothe arthritic pain. Medieval magicians put my seeds in their shoes, hoping they would help them fly, but regretfully they did no. I am fleshy, ribbed stalk that ranges in color from blanched white to dark green. My stalk, that can grow up to 16 inches, is my most popular part, but my leaves, seeds, and roots also are used. My most popular variety was cultivated in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1874. I was introduced to many consumers at local Michigan train stations, where I was handed out to passengers for free. In 1960 at Chicago’s Ambassador East Hotel, I gained fame and recognition with bartenders. In 1897, I was featured as a muscle relaxer in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. Today, scientists believe that eating two of me a day will help reduce blood pressure. My crunch is created by the collapse of my numerous air filled cells. In the United States are over two billion pounds of me are harvested annually. The average person consumes about 8 pounds of me a year. I am an excellent source of potassium and a good source of vitamin C, folic acid and vitamin B6.
What am I?
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The Food Quiz has is brought to you by Culinary Specialty Produce, a specialty produce broker that scours the world for the very best in specialty produce. Contact them at 908-789-4700 or by sending an email to info@culinaryproduce.com.
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