Do more Oregonians get food poisoning?

Compare and Contrast …

Over at Slashfood today I learned that to become a licensed food handler in Oregon you can take an online course. By contrast, where I live you have to attend a food handling course to become something called a food safety supervisor. Why can’t we learn online like Oregon? Are there any stats out there anywhere to show Oregon, USA has a worse record of public food poisoning than Victoria, Australia? Also, all organisations, including charity street stalls, have to have something called a Food Safety Program.

Evil food poisoners at work

Fantastic, I know I’ll be sitting up all night writing my food safety program and getting it registered by the Council just so I can have the dubious honour of being the organiser of the local school cake stall on election days.

Food handling rules for charitable organisations would have to rank on any list I might compile of counterproductive regulations (I haven’t compiled such a list yet but I’m open to any suggestions as to what should be on it). Apart from the “Food Safety Program” mentioned above, the bakers for the cake stall have to comply with food labelling laws and list, in order of size, the ingredients, as well as put their name on the cake so any potential poisonee can find them.

Yum …

This is presumably so Mrs Moron doesn’t buy and feed the walnut cake to her Little Johnny with a nut allergy without knowing it has nuts in it. Or Mr Mindless with celiac disease doesn’t sue because he wasn’t warned a cup cake had flour in it.

At some point I reckon people have to take some responsibility for their own actions and especially their own health. I’d be more supportive of all these rules if I thought they actually stopped anyone getting food poisoning but in the main they seem to be more concerned with covering everyone’s butt (especially the regulators butts) against being sued.

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