Inspectors up after 2011 outbreak

EATING CLEAN: LaSalle Bakery owner Michael Manni, right, speaks with a customer. He says his two-location company  employs 12 certified food-safety managers, more than it ever had in the past. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
EATING CLEAN: LaSalle Bakery owner Michael Manni, right, speaks with a customer. He says his two-location company employs 12 certified food-safety managers, more than it ever had in the past. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

The St. Joseph’s Day salmonella outbreak that sickened 66 people and killed two in 2011, allegedly from a batch of bad zeppoles, was a turning point for food-safety inspection in Rhode Island.
Recession-induced budget cuts had depleted the ranks of state health inspectors, who once numbered several dozen, to seven people at the time of the incident. They were tasked with monitoring more than 4,400 food-service businesses.
Whether lack of state resources played any part in the outbreak is unclear – the Johnston bakery that made the suspicious pastries had passed an inspection a year earlier – but the situation caused alarm.
Since then, the R.I. Department of Health has worked to reinforce the Food Protection office, which by the end of this month should be back up to 19 full-time inspectors.
“I think over the years there has been a loss of staff through attrition and, with the nature of the economy and money tight, the positions didn’t get filled,” said Ernest Julian, state chief of food protection. “After [the 2011 outbreak] state auditors pointed out there was a need for more effort. Our goal now is to try to get into most places once a year – some places haven’t seen us for awhile.”
Of course, with more inspectors comes a greater expectation that Rhode Island food businesses follow the intricate federal health-safety guidelines the state enforces and guard against anyone getting sick.
With the culinary sector becoming an increasingly important part of the local economy and Providence chefs known for their innovative cuisine, the stakes on food safety are high.
Outbreaks like the 2011 salmonella crisis notwithstanding, eating is probably as safe now in Rhode Island and across the country as it has ever been.
In 2012, there were 266 food-borne illnesses reported in Rhode Island, down from 737 illnesses reported two decades earlier, according to figures from the R.I. Department of Health.
Between 1992 and last year, the number of cases reported declined steadily, with only small spikes, including one from 1996 to 1997 and a smaller one from 2008 to 2010. In 2008 there were 270 reported food-borne illnesses, which jumped up to 335 cases in 2010 before heading down to the new record low last year. Even with public-sector budget cuts, health departments have progressively tightened food-safety standards, food-protection training has spread, and businesses have improved their methods and equipment.
In 1993, Rhode Island started requiring mandatory food-safety training for restaurants. Nationally, an increasing range of establishments have been subject to those rules as well.
“Absolutely people’s awareness of food safety has risen from the old days, which is a good thing,” said Michael Manni, owner of LaSalle Bakery in Providence, which opened on Smith Street in 1935 and has a second location on Admiral Street. “Food safety is important. We have 12 managers who are certified food-safety managers, and we have never had that many before.”
Perhaps more than any other Rhode Island business, LaSalle Bakery responded aggressively to the 2011 salmonella outbreak, believed to have originated in pastries made by DeFusco’s Bakery in Johnston.
Concerned that customers would be reluctant to buy zeppoles and other confections after the outbreak, Manni purchased a $55,000 machine that, among other things, rapidly makes and chills the pastry cream used to fill zeppoles.
The health code requires heated pastry cream, once cooked, to be cooled to room temperature within two hours and to 38 degrees in another two hours, an awkward task to do manually for large batches.
Manni said food-protection training for managers also has added to the cost of doing business, several hundred dollars for each certification. But, like the pastry-cream machine, it is worth it.
DeFusco’s, the bakery whose zeppoles were suspected of making people sick, didn’t survive the salmonella outbreak.
When health inspectors investigated the bakery, they found a litany of violations, the most damning being the storage of zeppole shells in boxes used to hold raw eggs.
Facing, at minimum, a lengthy license suspension and possibly some fines, DeFusco’s closed voluntarily and then went out of business.
DeFusco’s is one of 127 food establishments – ranging from fine-dining restaurants to fast-food chains and coffee shops – closed at least temporarily to deal with health code violations since 2007.
At least 29 of those establishments are now out of business, according to Department of Health records. The pace of closures, characterized as voluntary shutdowns to deal with mandatory remedies for code violations, has accelerated in recent years.
Between 2007 and 2010, the average number of closures was 15 per year. In 2011, that rose to 21 closures, then 32 closures last year and 12 closures so far in the first four months of 2013.
Health-code violations range from the highly technical – such as the condition of gaskets on dishwashing machines or proper labeling of spices – to broader issues like infestations or cooks not washing their hands.
When confronted with violations, Julian said the Health Department has significant latitude in deciding what requires a shutdown and what can be fixed in the normal course of business.
Julian noted that not all closures are a result of proprietor error. Some are caused by larger incidents, such as a fire or, in one case, a wayward driver crashing into a restaurant, throwing it out of code compliance.
The largest contributor to food-borne illnesses in food establishments are workers, who can spread pathogens by being on the job sick or not following procedures, Julian said.
Another major point of emphasis is food temperature, and keeping ingredients out of the lukewarm danger temperatures that encourage germ growth.
“We are focusing on the things most likely to make people sick, and we put a high priority on problem places,” Julian said.
As American tastes have become more adventurous, chefs have become more aggressive in innovating with their food and using a wide range of cooking techniques to deliver new flavors.
High-tech methods like vacuum-sealed cooking present one kind of food-protection challenge and the popularity of homemade, “artisanal” foods has brought traditional techniques for canning, pickling, sausage-making and cheese-making back into many local kitchens.
Although not disputing their culinary value, Julian said these kinds of preparations generally pose a larger public health risk than food that goes immediately from the grill to the customer’s plate.
“When people get into canning, processing, cheeses and meat products, you really have to watch that,” he said. •

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