Is Your Kitchen Health-Department Clean?

When the swanky Getty Center opened in Los Angeles in 1997, I remember the ‘ “C” health grade on the center’s several restaurants was as remarkable as the stunning Richard Meier architecture and Robert Irwin gardens.

Californians have always expected restaurants to prominently display heath department letter ratings. And we expect them to be “A” grades, whether it’s a celebrity chef’s namesake eatery or a humble taqueria.

Now the New York City health department has adopted letter grades for restaurants, and humorist Henry Alford wanted to see if his home kitchen would pass muster. So he invited a health department inspector in and documented the results in “Would Your Kitchen Pass Inspection?” for The New York Times.

In a word, no, his kitchen didn’t pass inspection, despite scrubbing the place top to bottom. And yours probably wouldn’t either.

That’s because restaurant health codes are designed to safeguard the public’s health from mishandled food. Restaurants are required to do things like have a separate sink for washing your hands (Alford was docked points for using his kitchen sink for this),  not allowing animals to roam in the kitchen (his cat decided to make an appearance during the inspector’s visit) and not keeping his dish towel in a bucket of sanitizer.

But even the forthcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 are likely to address food safety to some extent in an effort to ensure people don’t poison themselves once they bring food home from the store. At least 50 pages of the Dietary Guidelines’ Advisory Committee’s recommendations were devoted to food safety issues, including educating consumers about how to store, handle and cook food.

Most of it’s common sense. Among the basics:

• Clean hands and surfaces frequently. The health inspector advised Alford to wash his hands in the bathroom sink–a step, frankly, few busy home cooks are likely to follow.
• Separate to avoid cross-contamination. That means not using the same knife and cutting board that you just used to cut up a raw chicken to chop veggies.
• Cook foods to the proper temperature. Alford’s inspector docked him a few points for not having a working meat thermometer.
• Chill by refrigerating or freezing foods promptly. Alford lost the lion’s share of his points for keeping his fridge and freezer too warm. To make sure your fridge and freezer are at the right temperatures (40 F or colder for the refrigerator/0 F or lower for the freezer), invest in a thermometer. You can find a fridge thermometer at most supermarkets.

For details on these and other food-safety tips, check out the Partnership for Food Safety Education’s Fight Bac! website.