Make sure buffet food is treated correctly

Source: Detroit Free Press
Call me cautious, but I always scout out the room before I start filling my plate at a buffet.

Sure, I want to avoid the disappointment that comes from loading up with meat balls and cabbage rolls, only to discover jumbo shrimp and filet mignon farther down the line. But I also want to check out how the food is being presented and maintained -- and so should you.

Eating from a buffet isn't necessarily riskier than ordering from a menu.

But when food sits around for long periods and isn't kept hot enough or cold enough, there's the potential for trouble.

Cold cold, hot hot
Cold foods should be held at 41 degrees or below, under new state food-handling codes, and hot foods should be kept at 140 degrees or higher, says Bob Long, chief of special programs with the Oakland County Health Division, which is responsible for inspecting about 10 percent of the state's licensed restaurants.

Obviously, since you're not a food inspector yourself, you can't go around sticking a food thermometer into the chicken curry or the seafood salad, but you can look for other clues that the management is safeguarding your health.

Some are as simple as appearance.
"The food should be aesthetically pleasing. If the gravy is crusted over, that's a turn-off," Long says.

Salads should be surrounded by ice -- not water. "You should never have a product standing in ice water. You should have drained ice around the container, and the ice should be as high or higher than the product in the container," Long says.

Foods that aren't kept on ice can be served if they're disposed of within a certain period, however.

Take Hollandaise sauce, for example. "Chefs don't like Hollandaise sauce chilled, so when it's prepared, it has to be used and served within four hours or it has to be discarded," Long says.

At the hot-foods area, look for steam coming off the steam table; the water in the pans beneath the food should be extremely hot.

Look for the kitchen staff. Are they frequently checking the buffet tables and keeping them neat?

Are they taking away mostly

empty containers and bringing out full ones? Replacing pans and bowls does more than keep food plentiful, it keeps it fresh and appealing.

"You should have continual service taking place," Long says.

My own tips
Personally, I like the idea of food prepared just for me, so at buffets, I often gravitate to the stations where food is being prepared to order or a chef is carving meat and placing the pieces on my plate.

If I'm going to a place I don't know, I try to arrive early when I think the food is freshest.

And if I don't like the looks of a buffet -- whether it's a fancy brunch or a fast-food salad bar -- I do what Long suggests.

"The biggest thing we can do as consumers is to vote with our dollars," he says.

If something concerns you, tell a manager.

If you aren't satisfied with the response, go elsewhere.

It's fun to be an adventurous diner -- but not a sick one.
Source: Detroit Free Press