First, Do No Harm
The Michigan restaurant community needs to confront a painful
fact. Consumers, the media, and elected officials are becoming
increasingly obsessed with the sanitation practices of restaurants.
Here's how it happens. Local foodborne illness outbreaks lead
to increased consumer concerns about the safety of food. Local
media stations attempt to address those concerns, and obtain high
ratings, by documenting and publicizing outrageous examples of
poor sanitation practices. Elected officials respond to the furor
over these revelations by enacting sweeping, costly and cumbersome
new regulations in a desperate attempt to address public concerns.
Restaurants are left reeling with a devastating one-two punch:
a loss of customers due to fears about restaurant sanitation and
the added expense of new regulatory procedures.
In Los Angeles, for example, the tragedy of the Jack-in-the-Box
E Coli outbreak lead to an incredible undercover hidden camera
expose, which documented on film the shocking sanitation practices
of a handful of Los Angeles restaurants. The local government
then passed sweeping new ordinances for all area restaurants,
including the mandatory posting of health inspection scores, the
closure of restaurants which fail their inspection, and required
sanitation training for all restaurant managers.
Those who think the same thing couldn't happen here in Michigan
are wrong. We have already had a statewide Hepatitis A outbreak
from tainted strawberries, a salmonella outbreak linked to a Lansing
restaurant, and a Hepatitis A outbreak linked to an Oakland County
restaurant. The Detroit media have begun to regularly air their
"Dirty Dozen" segments on restaurant health scores during ratings
"sweeps" week, because of the incredible viewer interest in this
subject. And the Michigan Legislature is set to adopt the new
FDA food code this Fall, providing ample opportunity for well-intentioned
but misguided new regulations to be adopted.
The Michigan Restaurant Association is working hard to keep an
oppressive new regulatory environment from coming to Michigan.
We have been working for months with State and local regulators
to ensure that the new food code exhibits an absolute commitment
to public health and safety while addressing many of our practical
operating concerns. We have expanded our commitment to sanitation
training by offering a series of comprehensive HACCP (Hazard Analysis
of Critical Control Points) seminars to our members. And we have
joined with the Michigan Department of Agriculture in an exciting
new pilot program that helps restaurants to implement a HACCP
program in their establishment.
But we can't do it all, and we need your help. It is time for
all of us to take a fresh look at our sanitation procedures, and
redouble our efforts to protect the public's health. Nothing
is more valuable than the trust and confidence that millions of
Michigan consumers place in us each day when they enter our establishments.
Nothing could be more devastating than a loss of public confidence.
When it comes to sanitation, we are all in this together, and
one bad apple can definitely spoil things for the whole bunch.
Before we can "wow" customers with all the magic that restaurants
have to offer, we must first do no harm.
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