Illegal Sous Vide?

[foodnfoto]

I happened on this Op-Ed piece in the NY Times today and thought some of you might find it interesting. The columnist explains the process of sous vide but not the reason the Dept. of Hygiene has proscribed it. Does anyone else know? Is the poaching liquid at too low a temp to eliminate harmful bacteria trapped on the food and in the packaging material?
Do many of you chefs use this technique often?
As the recipient of a week long case (and hospitalization for) of food bourne staphylococcus and campylobacter from a NY restaurant, I'm all for strict food handling regulations that have real teeth. However, the complete elimination of the technique of sous vide seems a little extreme.
Here's the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/op...html?th&emc=th

[shahar]

A friend of mine got fined for using this technique in philly.

While across the street a drug-dealing-fronting-rat-infested-chinese-american-restaurant goes on poisoning the populace.

[chrose]

I think more than an alarmist attitude I'm sorry to say it seems to be more of a NY attitude. NY has historically been a very lucrative state, the money in NYC alone is remarkable, yet for some reason the state is constantly broke. The powers that be nickle and dime us to death with fines and some of the highest taxes in the country. Yet no matter how much money rolls in they seem to lose it somewhere. So they have to overturn rocks to find pennies, so here you have the latest rock. I can see some point to the fact that care needs to be taken with a product that has a potential liability, but as usual they're using a hammer to kill a fly.

[Mikeb]

Originally Posted by foodnfoto

The columnist explains the process of sous vide but not the reason the Dept. of Hygiene has proscribed it. Does anyone else know? Is the poaching liquid at too low a temp to eliminate harmful bacteria trapped on the food and in the packaging material?
Do many of you chefs use this technique often?
As the recipient of a week long case (and hospitalization for) of food bourne staphylococcus and campylobacter from a NY restaurant, I'm all for strict food handling regulations that have real teeth. However, the complete elimination of the technique of sous vide seems a little extreme.
Here's the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/op...html?th&emc=th

Yes, often the temperature used in sous-vide cooking is insufficient to kill the bacteria, and the food will spend more time at the temperatures that encourage bacteria growth....