Scores on doors at home

patrick_keogh said :

The OP’s assertion is at variance to health department reported data for causes of hospital admissions. Most food poisoning that results in hospital treatment comes from food providers outside the home.

Sorry I should have cited my references:

“FSANZ estimates that between 60-80 percent of foodborne illness arises from the food service industry.”
and
“The annual cost of foodborne illnesses in the ACT attributable to food establishments cout be between $61 million and $89 million per year”.

both from
http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/315912/Report-SoD-Regulatory-Impact-Statement.pdf

Note the figure of 60-80% of illness despite the fact that only 10-30% of meals come from the food service industry, the majority being prepared at home. So the risk factor is something like 5:1 that a meal from an external provider is more likely to make you ill. I rest my case.

The OP’s assertion is at variance to health department reported data for causes of hospital admissions. Most food poisoning that results in hospital treatment comes from food providers outside the home. There is a reason for this even allowing for slack food safety management… in your household you have your own ecosystem of bacteria. Your body is typically in a state of balance with these bugs. When you are exposed to a different mix of bugs you are much more likely to get ill. That is one reason why you are more likely to get a bug when you travel: it isn’t necessarily less clean, just different flora. So that is one reason why we have to have more stringent standards for food safety in restaurants.

The second reason of course is the risk of widespread impact. My off bit off chicken at home will cause one or two people to get ill. Off chicken in a restaurant could cause hundreds of people to get ill. So it is just sensible risk management to put more effort into risk mitigation for a restaurant.

The third reason is the one of liability. If I am slack in my food safety and make myself sick then be it on my own head. If a restaurant is slack about food safety (and until the recent spate of closures I couldn’t tell) then I was running a risk over which I had no control. So the restaurant owes a duty of care that is greater than in the case of my own kitchen. I would have this same duty of care if I cooked food for a fete: I would be subject to the same detpartmental controls.

Oh, I am thinking someone has seen through my skulduggerousness and I am hoping the god of small things will deal very very harshly with any micro organisms likely to cause you harm.

Most houses also wouldn’t pass an OH&S inspection, so I reckon we should get rid of those in work places too.

Is Vindalu suggesting that the ACT government regulate our kitchens now?

Nah just that if you got sick it was from your own cockroaches, not his.

A very noble posting, well done. Best get back to your palace now and take care of that roach problem.

True story.

In most homes food prep, hand washing and dishes all go through one sink and it might not even have a flicky mixing tap!

And did you know some people might put their leftover food in bowls covered with glad wrap instead of dated containers?

And don’t get me started on the state of the typical domestic exhaust hood!

Srsly tho I’ve only ever had food poisoning once and it was from my own fridge. Had to get a chef mate to fix it for me because it was frosting up and overheating. I’ve got to defrost the freezer again this week because my domestic fridge is crap.

If I make myself sick at home – its my choice. I also can remedy this myself at any time. If I go eat at a restaurant, I do not get a choice about whether I get sick or not. Im in the restaurants hands and the highest standards need to enforced

This post contains strong traces of sour grapes and should be banhammered.

Cool story, bro.