As many of you may already realize, the Change.org petition mentioned below is now closed. However, I would like to thank all of you who visit this blog. I hope that the information will be useful as you educate yourself and others about a few public health concerns related to commercial food handling. njb
5/30/2013 UPDATE
Please sign my Change.org Petition calling for appropriate safety pratices to be used in the deli at the Rossville, Georgia Bi-Lo. Thank you for your support!
http://www.change.org/petitions/michael-byars-bi-lo-ceo-use-safe-food-handling-practices-at-the-bi-lo-rossville-deli-in-georgia
GAG WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS INCLUDED
Food has always been a
personal issue to me. Coming from a large Italian family, it was common for us
to get together to not only share food, but to discuss it in every conceivable
way. We were taught and teach our children how to select fresh healthy food
products to maximize the quality and nutritional value of meals and snacks we
eat and serve others. We discuss how to prepare a wide variety of food, to
delight one another with new dishes and old favorites, as loving gifts during
celebrations and family gatherings, as well as daily meals. We do not take food
for granted, but see its care and preparation as one of the most important
duties of our lives.
Getting
sick from food is something we consciously work very hard not to do. We could
be considered fanatics about food preparation, in both personal and commercial
food-handling, since we are serious about taking care to maintain appropriate
temperatures (before, during and after cooking), monitoring the shelf life of
food, the freezer-life of food, proper canning and drying, not to mention
cleanliness. We pay close attention to food color, smell, texture and food
combinations. My grandparents and uncles often fixed meals for 200+ people as
active members of their church and we all have cooked meals for family
weddings, funerals, graduations and holidays. We live by high standards for
food handling and to date, we are proud to say that we are unaware of anyone ever getting sick from food we prepared ourselves.
After completing the coursework for my Ph.D.
in Public Health, I took a temporary part-time job at a Bi-Lo grocery store
deli in Rossville, Georgia. I quickly became completely horrified by not only
the conditions of the work areas for food preparation and food storage, but
even more by an apparent apathy of store management towards potential health problems
I identified. I became determined to use my knowledge, willingness to work
hard, and my deep respect for food to contribute to a significant upgrade of the
quality of food-handling practices, by trying to achieve a close approximation
to industry standards of best practices.
I did so, in part,
because I held myself accountable for the knowledge I earned and even more on
behalf of the many indigent community members who bought food from our deli. I
was personally told on numerous occasions by staff (including upper managers)
that “ours is a Welfare Bi-Lo” since
a large portion of our customers bought their food with food stamps. It was
both stated and implied that our standards did not have to be at their highest
since the food stamp customers would continue to buy their food at Bi-Lo with
or without the changes I suggested.
It became painfully
obvious to me that keeping best-practice standards was not a priority, such as
when I was told time and again to leave certain problems alone and “learn the
way we do things around here.” Was I right in challenging Bi-Lo practices? I
will let you be the judge, after seeing the evidence.
But
first I would like to present information regarding foodborne illnesses and
deaths.
Food Handler’s
Manual: A Guide to Safe and Healthy Food Handling for Food Establishments (www.vldhealth.org) states:
Every year in this country, millions of people get sick
from the food they eat. Most of these illnesses can be prevented.”
Germs
(and some foods) responsible for most foodborne illnesses:
Campylobacter (poultry)
E. coli O157 (ground beef, leafy greens, raw milk)
Listeria (deli meats, unpasteurized soft cheeses,
produce)
Salmonella
(eggs, poultry, meat, produce)
Norovirus in many foods (sandwiches, salads)
National
Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Division of Foodborne; Waterborne, and Environmental
Diseases
CS234569A
According
to the manual, reducing the incidence of potentially hazardous food can be
accomplished by eliminating opportunities for bacteria to thrive. Potentially
hazardous food includes:
“Any food or food ingredient that is capable of
supporting the rapid and progressive growth of infectious or toxigenic
microorganisms (ones that produce toxins). To be potentially hazardous, a food
must be:
2. Non-acidic (pH at or above 4.6)
3. A food source for bacteria (high protein
best)”
Temperatures also make a big difference in terms of the creation
of optimal conditions in which bacteria could thrive:
“The “Danger
Zone” is the temperature
range between 41ºF and 135ºF. Bacteria grow very rapidly in
the Danger Zone. For this reason, proper cooling, reheating, cold-holding,
hot-holding, and cooking temperatures should be carefully monitored.” So,
let’s start by looking at a couple photos I took at the 7:00 p.m. temperature
readings I became responsible for:
Notice
the gauge is reading between 100-110 ºF.
At this level of heat, the
chicken is well within the Danger Zone of steam table temperature and is, in
fact, illegal to sell.
Notice
that the gauge is reading just under 110 ºF.
This is a different day than
the one above, for a different style of chicken. I have a series of photos, and
am posting only a small sample here.
(These pictures can be block-copied for enlargment for a clearer look at the temperature gauge. Unfortunately, this blog site will not allow me to enlarge my pictures within it.)
The department manager and 2 assistant store managers were informed by me verbally on several occasions, and by the logs, that the temperatures were not showing legal temperatures by which we could sell the food. I am unaware of who may be in charge of monitoring logs.
The above photo is only one of the pages of the deli temperature log. As you can see,
the temperatures in the early part of the day are within the required
temperatures. I did not witness the earlier readings, but I did accurately post the temperatures that I got at the 7:00 p.m. readings.
Here
is another day of the deli temperature log, showing the temperature about about 110 ºF . I have several more, all of them falling well below the acceptable limits. I believe that a pattern of low temperature readings and inconsistent temperatures based on the time of day is apparent when viewed collectively. Space and time do not allow me to post all of my photos, but they can be provided if requested for a more in-depth view.
The packaged chicken sold out of the heated shelves displayed in front of the counter did not escape problems with temperature either, although these packages are heated by another heat source.
Next we can look at the storage of the chicken prior to cooking. As it shows up at the store in boxes of melted ice for shipping, the "verbalized" store's policy is to leave them in the bloody water, which gets darker over time. About this time, I visited 2 other Bi-Lo deli counters, one in Chattanooga on E. 23rd St. and one in Ft. Oglethorpe on Battlefield Parkway. When I spoke with the workers in these other stores they confessed that their stores followed the same practice as it is apparently "corporate policy." However, when I went to a non Bi-Lo store and inquired about how chicken was stored after shipping, the store manager told me that the chicken was removed from the shipping ice and kept in a dry, cold storage and the bloody water was discarded.
These chickens are taken out 3 at a time the night before they are cooked in the rotisserie, laid on pans and covered in paper, one each of the Traditional, the Lemon, and the Barbeque flavors (as indicated by white, yellow and red rubberbands).
This is a sample of how the chicken is stored the night before cooking. On this particular day, only 2 of the flavors were in the regrigerator. This picture was taken before I laid the paper on top, to show that the pan they were in was washed, but the cookie sheet they are placed upon are not washed. This is also the verbalized store policy since the bottom pans are not considered a health risk, despite their filth, according to the way they "do things here."
Speaking of Filth... Let's look at the papers under the delicatessan lunch meats which have been known to sit for days at a time on paper with blood, or in water.
Also, please take note of the chunks of food that sit on the vent, the poorly wrapped lunch meat and the water under it. There have also been many occasions when the "sell by" date was missing. When I brought it to the attention of the deli manager, I was told to "just put down yesterday's date" as the day it was opened. When I refused, the bag full of undated meat I collected was given to someone else to "re"-label it with the date of the previous day.
Still on the subject of filth...
The food trays that hold meat, lettuce, boiled eggs, tomato slices and cucumbers don't appear to be parts of the kitchen that staff are inclined to clean, even to the point of laying unwrapped food directly on the dirty tray, as is the case with this cucumber. These are used in sandwiches and salads, and sold in the refrigerator section in front of the deli counter. They are not washed prior to food preparation.
Why leave the filthy trays used to thaw the bread dough out of the story?
Despite the fact that the thin paper becomes damp under the chicken and the frost from the frozen dough as it thaws, the transmission of bacteria between the food items and the dirty tray beneath are also not considered a problem as a mode of bacterial transmission by decision-makers at Bi-Lo. I was told washing the pans is not necessary since there is the "paper" to keep them off the dirty trays. Below is a better look at said trays with and without the paper.
Are we still talking about filth? Yes, I think we are. Let's look at the pans in which the hot bar food is reheated/cooked next.
Despite the fact that these pans are stacked on top of each other, "only the inside" of the pans are actually required to be "washed" rinsed an sanitized. The above photo is the "cleaned dishes" side of the sink. They are ready to cook. I was told that they could not be cleaned. When I showed them one day that I could, in fact, clean them to the silver, it became a job I was asked to start, and which I was not allowed to complete, for a variety of reasons outside of my control.
At the risk of sounding monotonous, filth infiltrates many more parts of the kitchen, behind the counter. For example, there are the fryers pictured below:
When I questioned the accumulated grease and filth on the fryers and expressed my concern not only about its close proximity to food being prepared, but also its potential fire hazard, I was told that as long as those sides were not "facing the counter" within view of the customers, we did not have the time to clean them. When I pressed the issue, I was given a direct order from the store manager NOT to clean them, but to try to get the grease off the floor.
The cooking mitts have no procedure for washing or rinsing or wiping after handling the raw chicken going into the rotisserie or coming out completely cooked and ready to be packaged and sold. Instead they are hung on hooks on the wall, even (as in the case below) they might also fall on the floor.
Below are two cloths used for washing dishes. The one on the left was being used when I returned from my day off and I got a replacement cloth (the one on the right) because I did not feel comfortable running a dirty rag over dishes that were supposed to be clean enough to cook with.
I am not personally aware of any deaths or illnesses that resulted from food purchased from this deli. However, in light of my own yardsticks of personal cleanliness in food handling, I came to think of this place as illness and death just waiting to happen. I could be wrong, since I never really did figure out WHY they do the things they do to conduct the tasks of the kitchen. I realize that I am picky, and I was even told I was too picky and all the cleaning I kept wanting to do was just me coming in trying to act like I was "better" than others because I was never satisfied with the kitchen as the source of food preparation for the local shoppers.
Despite being raised on very different cleanliness standards regarding food, and a Master's Degree in Health Administration and a Ph.D. (ABD) in Public Health, I never could figure out why those potential problem areas were never properly addressed, based on management decisions and peer pressure to conform. Was I wrong for questioning these practices? I have a note from my doctor's office indicating that I should stop working there immediately based on health risks to my person after sharing some of these concerns with my health care provider. You be the judge.
Next week I will be submitting a petition to the Change.Org site after receiving a request to submit one in the effort to have others speak on behalf of the patrons of the "Welfare" Bi-Lo. Keep your eyes out for my next blog with a link to the proposed petition if you are willing to help me ask Bi-Lo Rossville to please clean their kitchen better due to the potential to sicken, hospitalize or even end the lives of vulnerable consumers who only see the customer-side of the counter. Stay tuned.
NOTE: I do have many more pictures, but I just really didn't feel the need to overstate my argument. I think the photos provided should be able to speak for themselves. Or, maybe I'll just go ahead and write a Part II. Depends upon the response. I am trying to save lives. I do not want to see anyone in my community being poisoned by filth anymore!
About the Author: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nancy-bell/30/231/855
