If It's Not Regulated, It's Forbidden
The NYT's Dana Bowen reports that health inspectors have launched a campaign to shut down a popular new cooking technique that doesn't fit into existing regulatory guidelines. The campaign comes in response not to an outbreak of food poisoning--no problems have been reported--but to a New York Times Magazine story on the popularity of sous vide cooking.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has quelled the sous vide revolution, for the moment. In the past few weeks inspectors have told some chefs to throw out shrink-wrapped food, forbidden them to use the equipment used to make it and told them to stop cooking and storing food sous vide until they have a government-approved plan for it.
In some cases, inspectors are handing out fines, which start at $300 per offense. The department's actions seem to represent the first time a city agency has singled out the technique, and how chefs use it.
The city health code, which governs the way chefs cook, does not specifically address the way a restaurant should vacuum-pack food. While no health problem has ever been tied to sous vide in restaurant kitchens in New York, officials say they are concerned that food could breed botulism and listeria if it is vacuum-wrapped improperly. [Emphasis added.]
Side note: The one good thing about Times Select is that it gives NYT subscribers free access to the Times archives, including articles like the magazine piece linked above.