The member breakfast at the March 30-April 2, 2011 Foodservice Equipment Distributors Association meeting in Phoenix is a crucial one for talking insider—or more specifically, interior design—politics. Across the country, FEDA members have been fighting legislation that threatens their rights to practice interior design, including the ability to prepare and submit drawings. As detailed previously…

From our always busy file on California regulations comes the widely discussed news that San Francisco has officially banned toys from meals that contain more than predetermined, so-called “healthy” levels of calories, sugar and fat. The veto-proof vote by the city’s Board of Supervisors echoes a similar ban enacted earlier this year in Santa Clara…

Equipment manufacturers—and everyone else, for that matter—watch your calendar. Enhanced testing and new verification requirements for equipment wearing the Energy Star label go into effect Jan. 1. As many of you probably recall, a year ago, a Government Accounting Office study revealed abuses in the Energy Star program (on the domestic appliance side), and the…

There’s just a little more than a year for operators to reap the benefits of the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010. The bill, signed by President Obama at the end of September, gives restaurants an extra incentive to purchase new foodservice equipment as long as the purchase is completed during the 2010…

Cooking in an outdoor oven set up on makeshift tables behind a restaurant is against health codes nearly everywhere—and perhaps strains common sense, as well. Last month, a caterer working at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, Calif., received an official reminder of how and where to use proper cooking equipment. State law requires that…

Canada’s economy and restaurant business has held steadier during the recession than in the United States, but that doesn’t mean its restaurateurs are any happier. According to a new survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, reducing red tape and bureaucracy was the No. 1 election issue this fall for Toronto’s restaurant community; nine…

Dubai already has the world’s tallest building. Now, on a more human scale, it plans to address food safety. After nearly 20% of the food imported to Dubai last year had to be destroyed for not meeting food-safety requirements, the country’s foodservice kitchens and food imports will be subject to new regulations. The new “Person…

It’s been years of diner beware for food truck fans left questioning the literal meaning of roach coach. Now, it looks as though health-department letter grades are coming to food trucks in Los Angeles County. Last week, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors took the first step toward approving a similar system for food trucks.…

Now here’s a case study on just how crucial spec’ing and placement of the right ventilation system is to a foodservice operation. In August, we told you about the court battle between a popular Washington, D.C. burger joint and a neighboring law firm over the restaurant’s “intense and noxious” grilling fumes. The eight-month fight appears…

The clock is ticking, mid-term elections are nearing, and it doesn’t look likely that the federal food safety bill that’s been gathering dust in the Senate is going to go anywhere soon. Despite broad bipartisan support, S.510 Food Safety Modernization Act remains deadlocked. Legislators say that the measure might not be perfect but it is…