Why doggie bags are off the menu

October 3, 2004
The Sunday Mail
Daryl Passmore
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10949707%255E2765,00.html 

Australian restaurants are, according to this story, refusing to give diners doggy bags for fear of being sued for food poisoning.

Restaurant and Catering Queensland chief executive James Visser was cited as saying that more and more restaurants were refusing to allow any food to leave the premises, and while it was relatively rare for restaurant staff to ask diners to sign a legal disclaimer if they took food home, some were doing it, adding, "That way we have control over the handling of the food. The minute it leaves the premises, we lose complete control."

Those which did provide doggy bags were using stickers advising people how to treat the food to avoid any health problems.

"It's a sad world when this needs to happen, but that's the reality," said Mr Visser.

The clampdown was a response to growing fears of legal action being brought by people who became ill from food taken home and eaten later.

Seven million cases of food sickness are reported in Australia each year, with about 60 per cent attributed to hotels, restaurants and takeaway outlets.

But Mr Visser said "ninety-nine percent of cases are related to temperature abuse".

A Food Safety Information Council survey in 2000 found that 76 per cent of people didn't know they had to reheat food to 60C or higher, and 57 per cent were unaware cold food should be served under 5C.

The story adds that those restaurants that did give out doggy bags were advised to keep a record, and to use doggy bag stickers developed by Queensland Health with Restaurant and Catering Queensland. The stickers explain the risks of leftover food and advice on storage and reheating.

And the practice of donating surplus food to charities has virtually disappeared in case it becomes contaminated before being eaten.

"Who wants an elderly person to die from donated food? Some kind of charity that would be," Mr Visser said.