Ministry softens on rare beef

AUCKLAND: Burgergate is over — the threat to mediumrare burger patties is gone.

Steak tartare, carpaccio and other uncooked or rarelycooked fare will also be allowed on to the menu after bureaucrats found a way for the nation to dine as it wishes.

The shift came yesterday after underfire bureaucrats at the Ministry for Primary Industries clarified their stance over minced meats and liver.

It followed an outpouring of frustration from Duke Of Marlborough Hotel chef Dan Fraser, who felt forced to pull the mediumrare Governor’s Burger from the Bay of Islands establishment’s menu.

New food regulations largely developed to deal with food cooked in fastfood outlets had been also been presented to thousands of restaurants, dictating cooking processes which would have stopped Mr Fraser and others from cooking patties on a barbecue grill.

The backlash forced MPI director Peter Thomson to explain yesterday there was no need for any restaurant to change, as long as chefs could show food inspectors they could produce food that was safe for customers to eat.

Mr Thomson said the generic guidelines which had been distributed also allowed for particular types of food to be served outside the rules.

He said the generic guidelines did not account for specialist outlets or restaurants which prepared food in a particular way, but there was room to do so.

‘‘It is designed for the average places rather than places that do something special.

‘‘We have offered to work with chefs to develop a bespoke food control plan or to develop a new section to go into the template.’’

He said no special guidelines existed for minced meat but MPI had started work on a template that would allow chefs to prepare food as they had, as long as it could be shown safe to eat.

Minister for Food Safety David Bennett said MPI rules were not about taking away choice but keeping people safe. — NZME