The conflict between enforcement agencies and catering sector seems to have caught the nascent street vending players also. The argument against government intrusion into food service industry is always the same that it affects their business due to unnecessary bureaucratic action resulting in loss of significance revenue. The food service sector invariably feels that their reputation to serve clean and safe food only can ensure continued patronage and they cannot afford to lower their guard that may be catastrophic to their very existence. But any responsible government that has the onus of protecting the lives of the citizens cannot take any risks because industry is always a mix of good, bad and indifferent players! Even main stream restaurants are resisting grading of eateries because of their perceived fear of getting on the wrong side of the law due to a single instance of slippage. Food Truck phenomenon which is spreading like a wild fire in the US is coming of age and some form of regulatory control needs to be put in place for their organized growth further.
"Los Angeles' fleet of over 9,000 food trucks, a niche culinary fad gone mainstream in cities across the U.S., will soon be subject to the same food safety rules as restaurants in Los Angeles County.
That means rogue food trucks will have to submit to posting their food safety letter grades. Yesterday, the New York Times called the move perhaps the "ultimate sign that this faddiest of food fads is going mainstream." According to the Times, food trucks in LA may soon also have to file route maps with the county health department, ensuring that health inspectors won't have to check Twitter or Facebook to find the street vendors, who typically retain a level of mystery by sharing their whereabouts via social media. "As with restaurants, health inspectors will be empowered to shut down a truck that scores less than a C for not enough attention to basic safety and food hygiene practices -- for example, dirty counters, food left out, unwashed hands," according to the Times' Adam Nagourney. "For the skeptical lunch-goer, proposed monitoring of these trucks may stifle concern over reputations of greasy, questionably sourced food items," said Sarah Damian, a fellow for the Government Accountability Project on the group's new Food Integrity blog yesterday. "In fact, even established retailers and gourmet chefs are going mobile and see the potential boost for business in positive letter grading." As GAP noted yesterday, the Los Angeles County letter grading system, which was put into place over a decade ago, has significantly decreased the number of hospitalizations linked to restaurant food poisoning".
That means rogue food trucks will have to submit to posting their food safety letter grades. Yesterday, the New York Times called the move perhaps the "ultimate sign that this faddiest of food fads is going mainstream." According to the Times, food trucks in LA may soon also have to file route maps with the county health department, ensuring that health inspectors won't have to check Twitter or Facebook to find the street vendors, who typically retain a level of mystery by sharing their whereabouts via social media. "As with restaurants, health inspectors will be empowered to shut down a truck that scores less than a C for not enough attention to basic safety and food hygiene practices -- for example, dirty counters, food left out, unwashed hands," according to the Times' Adam Nagourney. "For the skeptical lunch-goer, proposed monitoring of these trucks may stifle concern over reputations of greasy, questionably sourced food items," said Sarah Damian, a fellow for the Government Accountability Project on the group's new Food Integrity blog yesterday. "In fact, even established retailers and gourmet chefs are going mobile and see the potential boost for business in positive letter grading." As GAP noted yesterday, the Los Angeles County letter grading system, which was put into place over a decade ago, has significantly decreased the number of hospitalizations linked to restaurant food poisoning".
The most controversial issue is regarding filing of a route map as regulatory agencies do not want to follow Twitters to locate them when inspection is to be done. There may be a point in the stand taken by the industry that if the route is fixed, half the fun of road side eating is lost and by taking different routes the vendors can provide more service to the customers. On the other hand if the route map is not provided at the time of license application there is the possibility of chaos when too many of them converge at one point. Here again there is the understanding that between two food trucks a minimum distance has to be maintained. It will be interesting to see how the American Food Truck business blooms in the coming years and a successful regime may eventually emerge that can be replicated with minimum hiccups.
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