Restaurant Food Safety Facts the CDC Wants You to Know

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report based on their observations of kitchen practices and interviews of managers and workers at several hundred restaurants across nine states, including New York. The findings are stomach churning to say the least.
Each year, about 48 million Americans suffer from food poisoning and according to the CDC, more than half of those illnesses can be traced to food from restaurants, delis, banquet halls and schools. During their investigations, inspectors zeroed in on some of the major causes for food borne illnesses including storage and preparation of ground beef, chicken, leafy greens and of course hygiene practices of food preparers and servers.

Results of the Study
Many of the CDC’s findings were alarming to say the least. Here are the highlights of the report:
• In 62 percent of restaurants observed in the study, workers did not wash their hands after handling raw ground beef with their bare hands.
• 40 percent of kitchen managers interviewed said they did not designate certain cutting boards for raw chicken only. Contamination through raw poultry is the number one cause of death from food poisoning in the United States.
• 80 percent of kitchen managers said they did not always use a food thermometer to ensure that their hamburgers were cooked to the proper temperatures and more than 50 percent did not use thermometers while cooking poultry.
• 20 percent of restaurant workers interviewed said they had worked a shift in the past year while they were sick with vomiting or diarrhea.
Rights of Food Poisoning Victims
If you or a loved one has suffered health complications as a result of food poisoning, please contact the experienced New York personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm, who can help you better understand your legal rights and options.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)