The health and safety class was very interesting….

• It provided a good technical overview of temperatures and environments for keeping food safe.
• We had a good review of microbiology and how to identify environments for microbial growth (both good and bad)  in a restaurant and within food processing in general.
• There were many detailed descriptions of the Anisakiasis parasite in fish (and why you should think twice about eating raw fish from a place that does not specialize in it.)  The Adriatic sea provides a bounty of seafood.  
• We had chance to discuss with a food scientist who is working in restaurants and large food producers.
• For me, it was similar to a infection control presentation in a hospital.  The hospital analogy was further strengthened by the detailed description of the laparoscopic procedures used to remove the anisakiasis parasite and how it can turn into an open body cavity procedure if the infestation is too great.

The highlight  for me, was a copy of the Italian standards for salami production…microbioligica dei salumi

Fish is pervasive all along the Adriatic.  Here are a few example of how often it is sold and a sample dish.

Wednesday and Saturday fish stalls in the market

The local frozen food/seafood shop was twice as big as a 7/11 and carried more than 50 different flash frozen fish. Although you cannot see as clearly, these must have been close to five pounds each. I cleaned a few of these that were fresh. I never saw any anisakiasis worms in them.

Many of the fish that are served as fresh aren’t. The quality of flash frozen fish is quite high. In fact, restaurants in the Marche ensure that their fish are flash frozen before they are served raw in sushi.

 

Brodetto is a fish stew common to the Adriatic and anywhere the Greeks founded a sea port in the Mediterranean Sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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