People's choice

jeffry1970

jeffry1970

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How do people get away with doing people's choice at competitions? We were going to do people's choice at this years queforthetroops but the health department is basically making it impossible. I even had someone donating pork butts.
 
I think it all depends on where it is. We compete in some places that have a health department form and inspector shows up, and some contests wouldn't know what a health inspector is. I know that if there was ever a contest in my county, there'd be no way of doing people's choice because the health dept here is so strict.
 
It just depends on your health department. Some allow it, some don't. For example, at Harpoon where teams actually vend food, they have to get a "Fair Stand" permit from the state, good for 3 days. A health inspector comes on site and verifies some basic standards - which are more strict than KCBS requirements, but certainly doable.

In other locations, they won't consider a permit within a full commericial kitchen involved.
 
Were definitely not allowed to do it. Some other odd requests like food grade hoses with brass fittings which I don't have a problem with it just gets expensive when you need 100's of feet of hose and dozens of fittings.
 
The few I've been in had the raw meat donated. Then we were given 100 - 2oz cups to fill and gave them out to the public.
 
We are pretty fortunate here. I think I did 5 PC's last year out of 7 contests. One of them, the health department stopped by to do a quick inspection. Gloves, cold storage (cooler), 3 basin sink (buckets), hand wash with catch. My hand wash jug hadn't arrived, but they signed me off on my word that I would have one. The others, we just cooked and served.

Very few of us participating would have had approved vending trailers, but they have different rules for civic organizations and special events like fish fries and BBQ. If I parked on the street corner to vend, they would be writing me up. At contests, they have to issue.
 
Pole D said:
The few I've been in had the raw meat donated. Then we were given 100 - 2oz cups to fill and gave them out to the public.
Click to expand...

Yeah that was our plan but they said absolutely not. Each team doing it would be treated as if they were vending.
It sucks because people hate coming and not being able to sample the food.
 
Here are our Heath department rules and our way of handling them.

Sanitation stations. Must have 3 sinks plus handwash station.

Each team needs wash/rinse/sanitize bus tubs, AND a water dispenser with locking spout. This is done with either an igloo cooler with Hot water in it or a large electric coffee pot or the coleman hot water on demand system. Dish and Hand soap and towels MUST be next to the water dispenser.

Ground under serving area can not be grass or dirt: Teams lay down a tarp, or piece of plywood.

Serving area must be covered. Teams serve under EZups or canopy.

Temp tools: Thermapen or instant reads.

Meat hold temps are below 40 or above 145: There is no holding. Raw meats are given out from refrigeration, and put directly into the pit, and they are served directly out of Pit. Servings are SAMPLES only.

Each team must have vending license. HD waives this fee for each teams because all proceeds go to legit childrens charity and we register under a single license of the commercial kitchen at the venue.
 
jeffry1970 said:
Were definitely not allowed to do it. Some other odd requests like food grade hoses with brass fittings which I don't have a problem with it just gets expensive when you need 100's of feet of hose and dozens of fittings.
Click to expand...

I've been doing this contest from the beginning and we were always told food grade hose so that should be on the teams
 
jeffry1970 said:
How do people get away with doing people's choice at competitions? We were going to do people's choice at this years queforthetroops but the health department is basically making it impossible. I even had someone donating pork butts.
Click to expand...
The organizer at Gettysburg told me that the Commonwealth of PA has a health department exception for samples under 2 ozs. I've never even seen a HD person at any event in PA where we were doing people's choice.
 
Slamdunkpro said:
The organizer at Gettysburg told me that the Commonwealth of PA has a health department exception for samples under 2 ozs. I've never even seen a HD person at any event in PA where we were doing people's choice.
Click to expand...

jeffry1970 said:
The bucks health department said absolutely no giving out samples, no exceptions. Each county has their own health department.
Click to expand...

I understand that each county has it own HD but they are all required to follow state code. A quick google seems to show that they amended act 106 this past year and that People's Choice in PA may be a thing of the past.
 
Just did a comp. a couple of weeks ago where Peoples Choice started the same time as KCBS turn-in. While i did enjoy giving out samples, it was no fun having 100 people on a line in front of my tent at noon when we were starting to box our meat. Would have been much better if PC started after turn-ins were done. For that reason many teams did not participate in PC.
 
joemat said:
Just did a comp. a couple of weeks ago where Peoples Choice started the same time as KCBS turn-in. While i did enjoy giving out samples, it was no fun having 100 people on a line in front of my tent at noon when we were starting to box our meat. Would have been much better if PC started after turn-ins were done. For that reason many teams did not participate in PC.
Click to expand...
That's the same reason we didn't do it at Triple Threat.
 
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