posted
And now, for my eight-thousandth rant about my waitressing job...(at least this one's not about the customers!)
Last week we got a surprise visit from the Health Department. I double-checked to make sure the lemons and butter pats were on ice, the ice scoop was in its container and not in the bin, that my hair was off my collar, and that all dirty plates and napkins had been removed from the counters. I also made a point of washing my hands in front of them. I figured we'd get snagged on a few minor points, have a few days to fix the broken fridge that was five degrees too warm (or whatever), and be on our way. I was sadly mistaken.
They've got these new rules in place that all but make it impossible for us to do our job. We are not allowed to touch fruit to garnish a drink (or even put ice in the glass), put bread and butter on a plate, ladle soup, wrap leftovers, or even take salads out of the window, without wearing latex gloves and a HAIR NET. All these tasks are considered "food preparation," and no one is allowed to do that without gloves and a hair net. The kitchen staff wear baseball caps with the company logo, but they, too, are now being asked to wear a hair net underneath. (We also cannot refill drinks, including water and coffee, from a pitcher.) It's not like any of these things is unsanitary with bare hands. We use a scoop for the ice, ladles for the soup, tongs for the bread, etc., and when I wrap food, I only touch it with the same utensils that were on the plate. When I refill drinks from a pitcher, the cup and the pitcher are several inches apart. Unless Hepatitis can now climb a lemonade stream in 2.3 seconds, I can't see the risk there.
Anyway, we've had to designate a person each shift to parcel out bread, ice, lemon wedges, and soup, and to take salads out of the window and place them on the counter two feet below so we can bring them to our tables. (The alternative would be all of us wearing hair nets and gloves, and changing the latter every thirty seconds.)
I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. These new rules apparently went into effect just recently, and the inspectors are hitting all the big-budget chain restaurants first, supposedly in hopes that the Mom-and-Pop chains will have time to comply before the board comes to shut them down. They hit Legal Sea Foods two weeks ago (thanks for warning us, you spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters!) and are allegedly going after The Cheesecake Factory and Applebee's next.
I'm not sure if this is just Massachusetts or all of the U.S. In any case, I'm so mad I could spit in those idiots' drinks. Then shove them up their ***es. Let's see, is that permitted under the new rules if I do it with clean gloves and a hair net?
Oh, and what really gets me is the hypocrisy. The health inspector who came in to crack down on us obliginly put on a hair net while she went poking through our restaurant, but she left her bangs hanging out. Uh, lady? It doesn't work unless all your hair is inside! Freaking *&%$#@!
I'm going to have a few drinks and go to bed now. I'll see you all in the morning; with any luck I'll be a little more rational then.
-------------------- "If God wrote it, the grammar must be infallible. Perhaps it is we who are mistaken." -MapleLeaf Posts: 977 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I work in food service and if this is a US-wide regulation, it's the first I've heard of it. We do wear gloves and if we're working on the grill line, long hair has to be pulled up but no one wears a hair net.
-------------------- Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference. "Divorce is not caused because 50% of marriages end in gayness." - Jon Stewart my space on myspace--now showing "80's Video Of The Week" Posts: 278 | From: Bel Air, MD | Registered: May 2006
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I think health code is mostly a state by state thing. I know that we do a little food handling where I work and gloves and hairnets are not required. We use utensils or waxed paper, and we are required to keep our hair pulled back.
P&LL, Syl
-------------------- Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. — Voltaire Posts: 1944 | From: Michigan | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Esprise Me: These new rules apparently went into effect just recently, and the inspectors are hitting all the big-budget chain restaurants first, supposedly in hopes that the Mom-and-Pop chains will have time to comply before the board comes to shut them down.
Emphasis mine
I understand that these new regulations may be a bit inconvenient for you but to say that a food establishment will be "shut down" for a minor issue of noncompliance? I worked in the food division of a county health dept. for 3 years & I can tell you, it takes a hell of a lot more than 1 violation to close a restaurant. Hell, it usually takes more than 15-20 violations before that can happen. Inspectors have to jump through all kinds of hoops & red tape to accomplish something like that.
Sorry I can't sympathize with your plight more but it's a pet peeve of mine that people bitch & moan about the health dept. when these people are here to protect EVERYONE in the general public...and it's not like they're rollin' in dough for their efforts, either...
-------------------- "I reject your reality and substitue my own!" - Adam Savage, Mythbusters Posts: 411 | From: Indiana | Registered: Dec 2005
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I worked concessions for 4 years, and we got inspected 26 times (before each game, actually). Nobody wore hairnets, just ball caps.
-------------------- "To be or not to be! That is the question! Now, will you answer, dare, double dare, or take the Physical Challenge?" --Mark Summers as Hamlet Countdown: 177 days and counting... or less. My blog. 14 keyboards owed. Posts: 5584 | From: Ohio | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Esprise Me: These new rules apparently went into effect just recently, and the inspectors are hitting all the big-budget chain restaurants first, supposedly in hopes that the Mom-and-Pop chains will have time to comply before the board comes to shut them down.
Emphasis mine
I understand that these new regulations may be a bit inconvenient for you but to say that a food establishment will be "shut down" for a minor issue of noncompliance? I worked in the food division of a county health dept. for 3 years & I can tell you, it takes a hell of a lot more than 1 violation to close a restaurant. Hell, it usually takes more than 15-20 violations before that can happen. Inspectors have to jump through all kinds of hoops & red tape to accomplish something like that.
As I said in the part you quoted, these are supposedly new regulations. And they did threaten to shut us down.
quote:Originally posted by kingfan1978: Sorry I can't sympathize with your plight more but it's a pet peeve of mine that people bitch & moan about the health dept. when these people are here to protect EVERYONE in the general public...and it's not like they're rollin' in dough for their efforts, either...
I realize that, and I'll concede that some of the things we were cited for are real problems that we have been working to address for some time. Every restaurant in Boston fights a constant battle with roaches and rodents, and in our establishment, the little buggers are currently getting the better of us. We usually bomb for bugs once a month; we've started doing it once a week, but they keep coming. We're also doing our best to kill the mice, but again, with our proximity to the subway, they just keep coming.
-------------------- "If God wrote it, the grammar must be infallible. Perhaps it is we who are mistaken." -MapleLeaf Posts: 977 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Oct 2005
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Its been year since I worked in the food buisness. While we did not like the health inspecters coming around. They did give good advice and were quite helpful most of the time. There were alway one or two instpectors that shall we say enjoyed their job a little to much.
Posts: 597 | From: Bellingham, WA | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Esprise Me: As I said in the part you quoted, these are supposedly new regulations. And they did threaten to shut us down.
Sounds like someone on a power trip. Generally health code varies from state to state, and even in some instances from city to city.
Way back when I was just a teenager, I worked at a food service place in one of the strictest health departments in our area. Needless to say, our resturaunt was usually clean and all documentation in order. We weren't required to wear hairnets, becuase we had ballcaps instead. Of course, I don't think the regulations were nearly as picky as in your OP. I seem to remember servers in the resturaunts in that city pouring drinks at their drink stations, or even at tables, from pitchers. Hmmm. Is it possible there's some sort of outbreak in your city? The only other possibility is someone who just got the job of "health inspector" and is someone who gets pleasure from weilding a bit of power.
Maybe I'm just a bit too jaded.
Posts: 91 | From: Dallas,TX | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
In a past life when I worked in food service we actually did have the health inspector close us down, but only for one day. We got inspected (it was not a surprise inspection either). I worked at a kiosk version of the store in the same mall so I was not there when BOH went through and don't know the exact reasons why they shut it down. I remember getting a call from "the big store" asking me to come down and help them clean things up so they would be allowed to reopen ASAP. The next day the BOH came in early and inspected and allowed them to open back up.
So a threat to shut you down wouldn't necessarily be forever. Hepatitis isn't the only risk factor, as I am sure you know. Cross contamination has always been the biggest concern everywhere I worked in food service. Saying that my food service career spanned thousands of gloves would probably not be an exageration (sp). Though had I been made to wear a hairnet I would have told my boss to get lost (I worse the uniform hat with my hair in a ponytail while managering and when I switched to baking I wore my own baseball cap with my hair completely bound and tucked into the cap).
-------------------- "Silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie." -Apu (The Simpsons) Posts: 2026 | From: 10 miles South of Boston | Registered: Oct 2002
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After a nasty bout with food poisioning last week, anything the health inspectors can do to minimize the chance that I (or anyone for that matter) get it again, is welcomed.
Posts: 390 | From: Missouri | Registered: May 2003
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I was living in Los Angeles when the city brought in the letter grades for health inspections at all eateries. You could go into a restaurant and posted in the front window would be a big sheet with "A" "B" or "C", and anything less than that was shut down until they fixed it. My GF at the time actually refused to eat at anything rated less than an "A" despite the fact that if a place was truly unsafe, they'd have been shut down.
What boggled my mind, though, was going to a Staples outlet and seeing the "A" letter grade on hte front window. I finally learned that such stationery stores needed to be inspected because they sold bags of candy near the cash, the kind of stuff poured into bowls at office reception. They sold food, technically, thus they were considered an eatery and needed to be checked out by the BOH. I didn't even want to think about how many man-hours and millions of L.A. County budget dollars were spent on making sure the breath mints were safe.
Of course, I then moved to Toronto, and literally my first day here, I went to a restaurant and saw mice scurrying across the floor, to which the waitress just shrugged. "Queen St. West, whaddya gonna do?" I rarely if ever eat at food courts any more after hearing from our exterminator all the horror stories about bribed inspectors and unsafe practices going on in this city. Kinda makes me long for that SoCal anal retentiveness.
Max "washing my hands a dozen times a day" Renn
-------------------- Sister Ann: DRIVE! DRIVE Crow T. Robot: Look, I'm already driving, there's no inherent quantity of driving that I can increase! If you want me to go faster, you should say so. Posts: 579 | From: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Apr 2006
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