Food Trucks: Roach Coaches or Gourmet Enterprises?

[thelakelander]

Fans flock to South Florida's gourmet food trucks



Not so long ago, street food meant grilled sausages of unknown origin and salty, oversized pretzels â€" basic carnival chow.

Nowadays, vendors lure foodies to lineups of brightly painted trucks with names like The Flying Saucer and Purple People Eatery. Their menus offer candy pineapple chicken wings and bison burgers at rallies staged from Boca Raton to Kendall.

This new fashion in food trucks is popular, yes, but are the chefs offering safe fare?

A review of inspection reports for 30 regular vendors at South Florida events found none had roaches or rodents. But a handful of vendors have been cited for violations that can threaten public health, such as selling food of questionable age or temperature.

In the end, it's still buyer be wary.

These aren't roach coaches, operators and fans say. They present street food with style and market it on social networks. Food fanatics are lapping up the low-cost fare with gourmet aspirations at events staged in auto-dealer parking lots and public parks, sometimes with live music.

In 2010, health and safety inspectors closed, on an emergency basis, six vendors in the district that includes Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, and seven in the district that covers Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties. So far in 2011, only one was temporarily shut down in Miami or Monroe counties, and two were briefly closed in the other district.

Flagrant violators can be fined $100 or more.

State health and safety inspectors make unannounced visits to trucks twice a year, said Department of Business and Professional Regulation spokeswoman Beth Frady. Vendors are held to the same standards as brick and mortar restaurants.

Though rally locations are broadcast on social media, the state won't divulge whether inspectors find the food trucks online, Frady said.

Wildy Calixte and Joel Francois let their stomachs be their guides at the Biscayne Triangle Truck Round-up, where, every Tuesday, crowds swell to 1,000 near the campus of Johnson & Wales University in North Miami.

full article: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-mobile-food-truck-safety-20110820,0,1854618.story

[5ptscurmudgeon]

Most truck vendors I've known come from a brick and mortar restaurant background and know, understand and embrace food safety rules and regs. They are there to protect both the vendor and his public. All you have to do is watch weekly television following the health inspectors around and you see the same thing over and over. Asst. mgrs making excuses for owners who are no where to be found.

What is the status on the City Council bill banning food trucks from a 5 mile radius of a similar establishment?