Monday, August 8, 2011
Food Chain / Food & Drink Illinois Department of Agriculture: not playing Nice Cream
Posted by Mike Sula on 08.08.11 at 02:54 PM
- Eric Futran
- Kris Swanberg
The Trib's Monica Eng has a knack for finding food policy stories that make your blood boil. I hope you didn't miss this one published late Friday afternoon about how the Illinois Department of Agriculture has found a way to shut down independent artisanal ice cream makers for such nefarious offenses as using fresh strawberries instead of processed syrups. Makes Alderman Killjoy look like the Good Humor lady.
Here's Anne Spiselman's 2009 profile of one of these villainous dairy pushers: Kris Swanberg, who just Tweeted that Whole Foods has placed its last orders of Nice Cream.
Of course, this isn't the first time an Illinois Ag inspector has acted like a total jackass.
Comments (3)
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So, I fail to see the problem with getting properly licensed.
The State told her she was free to use fresh strawberries, but they might not pass the bacteria test and treated strawberries either looked terrible or had no taste. But she's still allowed to use them.
A pasteurizer isn't cheap, but she could legally do it on a stove, too. It's just more work.
A dairy license is required. So get one. If it's too expensive, then join up with all the other artisanal ice cream makers in Chicago, form a co-op or corporation, then name all the little guys as subsidiaries.
She's not being shut-down, she's being told to comply with public health laws. Remember, Chicago's food processing is the reason the US has safe-handling laws.
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JohnnieO, the costs of compliance in this case would be financially crippling to a business as small as Nice Cream. Perhaps you missed the requirement that she operate out of her own space -- in addition to having no basis whatsoever in "safety", that restriction alone could sink a tiny local business.
The state, at minimum, needs to have provisions for scale in their food safety regulations.
http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/Six-Clarif…
"The state will only accept pasteurization done by a pasteurizer, which is a very expensive piece of equipment because it records time and temperature digitally. It would cost about $40,000. We just do it on a stovetop, which the state won't accept. The state won't allow our method, even though it's safe."
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