A recent study by the health department in Los Angeles County found that about one in seven home kitchens would not pass the same inspection that health departments impose on restaurants. Just more than half would get a “B” or better in such an inspection, the study said.
There is a page on the L.A. County website that allows visitors to take the test for themselves.
A story in U.S. News & World Report suggests that some of circumstances that trip up commercial kitchens in a test also exist at home:
“Since food consumed at home is the source of roughly half of the nation’s annual 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses, that’s worrisome. ‘Sometimes we get a little sloppy in our own kitchens,’ says Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and nutrition professor at Boston University. ‘Whether you’re bringing raw food into your home to prepare or leftovers from a restaurant, you have to do your part to help reduce the risk of coming down with a food-borne illness.’ “
Recently, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a list of the riskiest foods that the Food and Drug Administration regulates.
