Bolton, UMaine Classes Cited in Press Herald Article on Restaurant Food Safety
Jason Bolton, an assistant extension professor and food safety specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, was interviewed for a Portland Press Herald article about food safety in restaurants. Recent efforts by health inspectors to bring local restaurants into compliance with federal regulations and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous foodborne illnesses are clashing with some of Portland’s cutting-edge restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients to make inventive dishes, according to the report. Bolton reviews all Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points plans for Maine restaurants. The plans are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for large- and small-scale food producers. “It forces them to look at the hazards and where things can go wrong and document that they are doing things correctly,” Bolton says of the HACCP plans. Health inspectors also have been taking classes at UMaine to learn about cooking processes that expert chefs have already mastered, the article states. “One of the challenges is getting all of the inspectors up to date,” Bolton said. “People are coming in at all different levels of knowledge. It’s a complicated system.”