SC - SC Feast n the law

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Charles McCN wrote:
> 
> A thread running on the histrenact list (a small europe-based list) asked
> how people get around the legal requirements that usually exist for
> people feeding other people for money. (We don't - we ignore them and
> hope we don't poison anybody)
> 
> Any other thoughts?

I wrote an article about kitchen sanitation several years ago (~10) for
T.I., which suggested that, as our various respective governments don't
seem to be engaging in gratuitous DEregulation, that it would behoove
cooks to know a little bit about how to get various local food handlers'
certification. What makes this a bit of a problem is that some lawyer
somewhere could easily decide that a case of food poisoning is the fault
and liability of the licensed food handler on site. The SCA probably
doesn't require it for that very reason, in the same way that I have
been discouraged from getting too specific on the topic in other
SCA-wide publications. The SCA cannot _appear_ to sanction any specific
act or statement which would result in injury to members or others. If I
say, in an SCA publication, that it is okay to butcher raw chickens on a
wooden cutting board, and then prepare salad on the same board without
washing and sanitizing it, ans surprise, someone gets sick, there's a
good chance the SCA will share in the liability.

On The Other Hand, people who do have such licenses, certificates, etc.,
receive very good, and very inexpensive, training, which will help
prevent such difficulties as massed cases of salmonella at Twelfth
Night. My papers from the New York City Department of Sanitation and the
State Board of Health would tend to make me the duck in the shooting
gallery, but I am not defenseless by any means. I run my kitchen in such
a way that I am certain that either nothing will, or can, go wrong in
the way of food-borne illnesses, or if it does, I will have saved
documentation indicating I have done everything in my power to avoid it,
and that I am not responsible for the Red Tide in the scallops, or
whatever it may be. In other words, the certification is kind of a
two-edged sword. There is, of course, no law that says you have to be
certified as a food handler, at least where I live, and there's also
nothing that says a certified food handler must publicise the fact that
he is certified. Sometimes I'll have people mention it if I have reason
to believe it will make the difference between being allowed to use a
site's kitchen facilities, or not. Some places, like Universities, will
often balk at a bunch of crazies using, and possibly messing up, their
kitchens, while they sometimes have less of a problem if the crazies in
question are licensed, and, presumably professionals. No need to correct
them, of course, on this point.

Basically what you need to do is follow the regulations as set down by
your local Health Department, Department of Sanitation, or whoever
handles this where you are. To do that, you need to learn the
regulations. You may or may not want to actually get the certification,
but it is important that you know the stuff, more or less. This includes
various temperature controls for bacterial growth (i.e. how to use a
refrigerator and a stove, 101), how to avoid cross-contamination (such
as storing the raw chickens on the rack UNDER the cooked beef, and not
the other way around, since drips are a minor inconvenience in one
direction, and potentially deadly in the other, but luckily liquids
don't drip UP). Then there is Sink 101, which includes basic stuff about
washing dishes, pots, equipment in general, and a bit of plumbing
theory, so as to be able to avoid things like raw chicken heads backing
up into the sink of the building next door. Basic first aid is optional,
but I feel that every manager should be able to take care of his or her
people in an emergency.

Beyond that, there is the stuff we have already beaten to death on the
subject of allergies and how to deal with them, posting accurate,
up-to-date ingredients lists, etc.

Yes, this seems like a heck of a lot, but the bottom line is that you
love your friends, and want them safe. I think most of us will go to
great lengths to assure that.

Adamantius 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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