In This Section:
In San Francisco Oct. 23?
North Carolina Changes Inspection Frequency
Locales Say You Can't Just Flush Water Down Toilet
L.A. Wants To Fight Fat With War On Fast Food
Better Sit Down, Have A Drink To Hear This
This issue's Economic Report Sponsor: Manitowoc Foodservice Group
Industry Report Sponsor: Server Products
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In San Francisco Oct. 23?
This just in from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District: The BAAQMD staff will conduct a public workshop to review and discuss changes to proposed Regulation 6, Rule 2, Commercial Cooking Equipment, from 10 a.m. to noon on Tues., Oct. 23. The workshop will be held in the seventh-floor Board of Directors Meeting Room at the District office located at 939 Ellis Street, San Francisco.
For copies of the proposed regulation, which involves exhaust requirements for cooking equipment, check out www.baaqmd.gov/pln/ruledev/workshops.htm. The workshop draft of the proposal contains strike-throughs and underlines to highlight the changes since the May 4 draft.
For questions or comments on the proposal, the BAAQMD recommends contacting Virginia Lau, Senior Air Quality Specialist, at 415/749-4696 or via e-mail at vlau@baaqmd.gov. Ms. Lau is also available to discuss this proposal prior to the workshop, and interested parties are encouraged to contact her as soon as possible to express concerns or ask questions.
District staff will be accepting written comments on this proposal until Fri., Oct. 26.
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North Carolina Changes Inspection Frequency
Depending on what kind of food you serve, you may be getting fewer visits from health inspectors in North Carolina. The state's Division of Environmental Health has changed the way health inspectors look at foodservice facilities.
On Aug. 1 the DEH's Food Protection Branch began inspecting facilities based on a restaurant's risk of foodborne illness. Inspectors now put facilities into one of four risk categories based on what they serve. Lowest-risk facilities—those serving no potentially hazardous foods, such as a beverage stand—will be inspected only once a year. High-risk establishments—restaurants with four or more potentially hazardous foods on the menu—will still be inspected four times a year.
Under prior rules, health inspectors were required to inspect all foodservice facilities four times each year. The new system will free up inspectors' time to concentrate on educating managers and employees in higher-risk restaurants about how to prevent foodborne illness, according to Terry L. Pierce, DEH director.
For more information on the new inspection policy, contact Larry Michael, head of the Food Protection Branch, at 919/715-0927.
Locales Say You Can't Just Flush Water Down Toilet
With water efficiency quickly becoming as big a topic as energy efficiency, several locales have decided water is too precious a commodity to just flush down the toilet—literally.
According to the California Urban Water Conservation Council, which now tracks legislation in multiple states requiring "High Efficiency Toilets," or HET, in new or existing commercial and residential buildings, several pending bills suggest a trend.
A bill pending in the California legislature, for example, would require low-flush standards of 1.3 gal. per flush on tank-type toilets by January 2010 and 0.5 gpf on urinals by January '11.
CUWCC tracks existing HET legislation in California, Colorado and Washington, as well as incentives that some water utilities are offering and posts the info on its website. A spreadsheet is available at www.cuwcc.org/toilet_fixtures/HET_Progr-Calif-Colo-Wa-Mass_06-10-18.xls.
For more information, go to CUWCC's Web site at www.cuwcc.org.
L.A. Wants To Fight Fat With War On Fast Food
Suggesting fast food unfairly targets people in poorer neighborhoods and thus contributes to higher rates of obesity and diabetes in those neighborhoods, a Los Angeles councilwoman wants to prevent more fast food restaurants from moving into those areas.
Jan Perry, council member from L.A.'s District 9, proposed an ordinance this summer that would impose up to a two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in several South L.A. neighborhoods.
The Los Angeles Times reports an analysis of restaurants in the city shows a higher concentration of fast food stores in South L.A. though the area has a lower number of restaurants per capita than other parts of the city. And a county health department report released last April says that about 30% of South L.A. adults are obese compared to about 20.9% countywide.
The moratorium, according to Perry, would give the city time to plan a more comprehensive approach to the obesity problem. Other towns and cities around the country have implemented zoning ordinances to limit fast food restaurants, but on the basis of aesthetics, not health concerns. The L.A. city council could vote on the ordinance this fall.
Better Sit Down, Have A Drink To Hear This
Restaurant patrons in Saskatchewan, Canada, still have to sit down to have a drink.
Regulators at the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority recently reviewed the province's liquor laws and decided to leave several untouched.
If you run a restaurant that serves alcohol in the province, you have to offer at least six menu entrées and make sure your patrons eat more than they drink. Bars and other hospitality venues have no such restrictions. Bar patrons can stand and have a drink and don't have to order food.
Many restaurants have skirted the issue by changing their format after the dinner hour to a bar atmosphere with no minors allowed. The SLGA's refusal to update the regulations could put these restaurants in jeopardy unless they comply, according to the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. The CRFA also said the rules make it nearly impossible to open wine bars and tapas-style restaurants in the province.
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