IS TRUMP'S RESTAURANT ENCOURAGING FOOD POISONING?

Not good news for Trump’s “Winter White House.” Mar-a-Lago’s restaurant didn’t do well on the latest inspection on January 26. Inspectors found 13 health and sanitation code violations.

Is this a case of paying $200,000 membership fee for a nasty case of food poisoning? Maybe even worse if the victim is a visiting head of state being wined and dined there. Talk of embarrassing!

All U.S. restaurants are inspected on a regular basis by inspectors from local public health departments. There is some variation between how often they do it and what they look for, but usually it covers things like cleanliness of the kitchen area and food handling, cooking and storage procedures. They also try to make sure that food is not cross-contaminated or contaminated by employees or by cockroaches, flies or rodents running around. I checked out the actual list for Florida. It has fully 50 “high priority” categories on it, meaning that failure on any one of these could pose a risk of food poisoning for diners.

At Mar-a-Lago raw meat (chicken, duck, beef and ham) were stored at temperatures that were far too high for safety. What, they are now trying to save on their electricity bills? Or, was it because their refrigerators were not operating properly and needed repairs?

Also, it seems that the restaurant's fish that was to be served either raw or undercooked had not undergone proper inspection for parasites. If you have been reading the news or this blog about the recent unpleasant experience of two California newlyweds with rat lungworm disease (which they probably caught from food in Hawaii) you will know that parasites can be very nasty indeed.

Even some of the lesser violations at Mar-a-Lago (such as inadequate hand-washing facilities for employees) have been found to often lead to food poisoning. It seems that not only do they have paying for refrigerator repairs and for replacing rusting shelves, but also can’t afford to heat the water!

Maybe Trump should take a break from playing golf and go back to checking the kitchen himself. Apparently, when he used to do so in the past, Florida’s “Sanitation and Safety Specialists” (that is their proper name) cited Mar-a-Lago with far fewer violations. Or should he sent Ivanka down there? She seems to get things done.

TSF

TRUMP ILL WITH FOOD POISONING?

No, this isn’t the case yet, at least as far as I know. Though it could be. He is a senior – and therefore in a high risk group. The fact that he is overweight – verging on obese – puts him at even greater risk for food poisoning. Research suggests that being seriously overweight is linked to a weakened immune system, which means he would have less protection against dangerous foodborne illness.

And I know this sounds mean, but I am kind of wishing for an outbreak of food poisoning at Mar-a-Lago, particularly at a time when he was entertaining a head of state there (hopefully President Putin of Russia, or Kim Jong-un of North Korea) which would really ensure that it hit the global news.

I think a first-hand experience is the only way President Trump will understand the importance of food safety, and hopefully begin to grasp the importance of regulations and inspections of our food. True, such regulations will never eliminate food risks completely, but at least they will reduce them.

Today, when announcing the drastic scaling back of federal regulations – something he had been threatening to do for months – he paved the way for exposing the American consumers to even more outbreaks of food poisoning than we are already having.

Even if regulations are not completely eliminated, Trump and Congress can financially starve the Federal food safety agencies from doing anything much to protect our food supply. Want to bet it will happen?


TSF

IS FOOD SAFETY ON TRUMP’S HIT LIST?

Brace yourself for more deadly chemicals, metals, bacteria, viruses, parasites and molds in your food. You might as well add bits of glass, metal and other debris as well to that list.

Today President Trump signed an executive action aimed at eliminating “costly” regulations so he can generate some savings for building his dream wall. He said that the United States does not need "75 percent of the repetitive, horrible regulations that hurt companies, hurt jobs." Big food companies, chemical companies, lobbyists and restaurants and are delighted. But what about ordinary consumers like you and me?

As Scott Horsley wrote on NPR website “Of course, one person's job-killing regulation is another's lifesaving rule.” The corporations are in the driver’s seat. Not us.

Each Federal agency has to set up a task force to identify which regulations get the axe. That includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which are trying to make our food as safe as they can. Alright, they are not perfect and at times contaminated food still slips through. The task is huge, and food safety has been chronically underfunded.

Do you really think this won't happen? That Trump really cares about our food? This is the man who is overweight and has high cholesterol from eating too much junk food ( but had his doctor lie about all this).

And don’t forget that, during his campaign, Trump also threatened to get rid of the FDA’s “food police” with their “inspections overkill.” Of course, he quickly retracted that statement. Hum, hum…What else is new?

TSF

DON'T LET YOUR TOAST KILL YOU

Well, it seems that burnt toast has brought me back to blogging. It was bound to happen eventually, but I sort of wish it had been something more dramatic (another Fukashima?).

Today seems to be “acrylamide” day in the United States. A long list of on-line sites have suddenly discovered this potentially cancer-causing cooking chemical (MSN, CBS, sciencefocus.com, fox13news.com, lifescript.com, wdef.com, news.sky.com, and many, many more). Most have associated it with burnt toast and/or potatoes. It seems that Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) started the ball rolling.

I hate to be doing a Trump and knock the media. But while it may not be fake news, it is very old news. European countries recognized acrylamide as a potential cause of cancer ages ago and have been educating the public well before Britain joined the chorus. And as for the United States…well. It has gone back and forth, but has been afraid to stick its bureaucratic neck out (the potato chip lobby at work?).

Now I am going to boast, which seems to be fashionable these days, at least in political circles. I did a thorough review of the issue about ten years ago. The Safe Food Handbook: How to Make Smart Choices about Risky Food, has a relatively short section on it – much shorter than originally went to the publisher.

And if you read it, you may find some other surprising foods that can contain acrylamide, not just burnt toast and certain kinds of potatoes.

But let me finish on a positive note about toast. One or two slices is not going to do it, so don't worry too much.

TSF (By the way, for those who always wondered, that stands for "The Safe Foodie."