How to Fail a Kitchen Inspection

food safety the thing that separates man from Beast or to put a finer point on it the thing that separates man from E coli and all its Freakazoid friends yep foodborne illnesses are everywhere and while you're free to Palm raw chicken for your friends in your own home restaurants and other food vendors can't instead they were holding to an army of clipboard wielding Health Inspectors and rubrics that cover any health hazard imaginable with near clinical Precision in the U.S the food safety system's most prominent symbol is these sanitation scores but that one letter represents several layers of Regulation Logistics science and everything else it takes to ensure nobody else has a rat tugging on their hair to help them make coffee BLD at the center of this whole thing is this the FDA Food Code at 668 Pages it is the Ulysses of not getting diarrhea at Sparrow the FDA keeps it updated with all the latest and greatest in food safety science which states then turn into actual laws on their own that's why even though the standards for a restaurant in New York or California are basically the same their scoring systems aren't if you score a 98 in Cali you're basically perfect if you score 98 in New York you'll be shut down faster than you can say salmonella here's how an inspection goes say you run a highbrow globally inspired yet homie restaurant let's call it the International House of Pancakes at some point during business hours you'll get a surprise visitor wielding a clipboard and a thermometer they'll visit the riskiest spots first food prep and cooking then head to less violation prone areas like storage dishwashing bathrooms trash disposal and finally retail or dining spaces they'll make sure you're in compliance with all these standards on the rubric in La there are 52 representing 110 possible violations and penalize you for any infractions worse violations are more costly to your score systems vary but in California a good retail practices violation like having a dirty floor will cost you one point a minor violation like an employee leaving their coffee in the food prep area is two points but a major violation can cost anywhere from four points food coming from questionable sources up to 11 points Burrs in the Kitchen come on man why'd you have birds in the kitchen if you pass you'll post your score in the window if you fail they'll shut you down until you can get your act together either way the report often ends up in some public database so board YouTubers can check how hot every single thing probed at the Valencia California Cheesecake Factory was if you're a convenience store that only sells pre-packaged food you're considered low risk and can expect a visit every 12 to 18 months at the other end of the spectrum if you're a restaurant that cooks and serves on site you're considered high risk and will get inspected at least two or three times a year assuming a fully staffed Health Department Los Angeles county is currently short staffed so they are not going as often luckily my writer Amy knows the food code now and I'm feeling generous with her time so I sent her to her own kitchen with the LA checklist to see if she cut it as an LA County Inspector she's got a thermometer which is a good start pathogens Thrive between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit or 5 to 57.2 Celsius so she had to prove her fridge keeps food under 41 degrees or else suffer a four-point deduction she also pokes this chicken which luckily registered 165 degrees Fahrenheit or 74 Celsius at this temperature germs die almost instantly so chicken one of the more pathogen-friendly Meats means to hit it others don't corned beef can reach a Max temp of just 130 degrees fahrenheit as long as it stays there for 112 minutes see how none of these cans are dented that saves two points a dent on a canned seams creates little holes for botulism to sneak in and we can't have that Amy also saves some points by not having oysters from any of these states because California has an additional Eight Pages of regulations on those and failing to comply would cost two more points still she racked up a lot of violations she lacked certifications in signage though that was corrected on site during the inspection and while her food storage is all six inches above the ground the amount of loose stuff in her fridge creates opportunities for contamination in all her kitchen earned a score of 70 points or a c which she would like me to remind you is passing but In fairness she lost a ton of points for just design and layout see while a residential kitchen can be whatever cramped dysfunctional wrap Paradise your landlord can get away with commercial kitchens have to have certain things in certain places to be up to code for example you either need separate bathrooms for customers and employees or if it's shared customers need to be able to get to that bathroom without going through the kitchen you also need at least two six one for employee hand washing and one for dishes with three compartments hot water rinsing and sanitizer and a faucet that reaches all three both of those sinks need hot and cold water with good pressure the kitchen needs good ventilation and the air ducts and exhaust pipes need to be cleaned so as to prevent fires they also need working lights that are either shatterproof or have light Shields and end caps to prevent you from accidentally serving Shard soup doors need to be self-closing to keep Critters out employee belongings cleaning supplies and trash slash recycling needs storage spots away from food prep and the bathroom has got to be fully stocked on toilet paper lest I don't know someone panic and use the tortillas you also need labels a lot of labels do you keep the flour in a big container like this that container better save flour did you take this cake out of temperature control it needs a label saying what time will be four hours since you did that and if it's still sitting there after that time someone needs to throw it away are you selling Gulf oysters in California you better have this exact message on the wall in English and Spanish in high contrast 25 Point font on a piece of paper no smaller than regulation printer paper or you can kiss two points goodbye those Gulf oyster regulations are no joke the rules are complicated it but here's the gist commercial kitchen standards aren't exacting and inspectors look for everything the standard is so high in fact that even a place with a questionable score likely still has better food safety practices than you do at home or at least a more complicated sink now if you're making rice at home it's gonna cook for 18 minutes so what do you do at that time Doom scroll sanitize your kitchen watch three more hi videos how about master the fundamentals of computer science well thanks to this video sponsor brilliant.org you can do at least part of that in under 18 minutes with no cost to get started I've been using brilliant for years to help me 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Channel: Half as Interesting

Views: 568,976

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Id: vlRdda9c5qM

Length: 6min 56sec (416 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2023