Food claims face new crackdown

Inspectors cite eateries for mislabeling local, organic

Polk County hog farmer Jim Wood is used to hearing that his premium Hereford pork is on the menu at Central Florida restaurants. The problem is that Wood doesn’t sell to many of these restaurants, and neither do his distributors.

“People love to put my pigs on the menu even if they aren’t serving my pork,” said Wood, owner of Palmetto Creek Farms in Avon Park.

As restaurants and consumers have embraced the farm-to-table movement, farmers and state regulators are reporting a rise in the number of eateries falsely advertising premium ingredients and local sourcing on menus.

State health inspectors have cited restaurants 68 times so far in 2017 in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties for mislabeling, the most in the last five years and more than five times the number cited in 2013.

Farm-to-table, local and organic are buzz words in the food and restaurant industry that demand premium prices. Two area farmers

said mislabeling has been a big issue in recent years. Each said they’ve found restaurants posting menu items claiming an item was sourced from their farm, even if the farmers never sold to them. If caught, the violations can carry a $1,000 fine or a restaurant’s license to operate can be suspended or revoked, although the state officials would not indicate how often it happens.

In October, Dexter’s restaurant in Winter Park received a violation during a health inspection for claiming on the menu that a sandwich contained locally grown pork.

The restaurant couldn’t prove the claims with invoices, so the inspector called the distributor, Lake Meadow Natural Farms in Ocoee, to verify. Lake Meadows told the inspector the pork was from Wisconsin.

Dexter’s co-owner Adrian Mann said he was told the ground pork was local and paid a premium price for it.

“When I usually buy ground pork it’s about $3.80 a pound, and for this, I paid about $6,” Mann said.

Lake Meadows farmer and owner Dale Volkert said he never claimed the pork was local.

“It’s all Heritage pork, but we never claim it’s local,” Volkert said.

Dexter’s, which operators four area restaurants, canceled its contract with Lake Meadow Natural, Mann said.

The increase in health inspector reports about misrepresenting menu items follows a “Truth in Menu” initiative the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation started in July 2016, warning restaurants they could be fined for inaccurate menus, particularly those claiming to be local, natural or organic. Restaurant operators said inspectors have been scrutinizing menus and asking for invoices to prove claims.

“While we may bring administrative disciplinary action for violations, we also work to obtain compliance by ensuring our licensees understand how to correct and avoid future violations,” said Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation spokeswoman Kathleen Keenan.

Farmers and retailers say restaurants inaccurately calling items local, organic or farm-to-table dilutes the work of local farmers who don’t have the price and scale advantages of corporate competitors.

For example, Palmetto Creek Farm pigs are specialty bred, free range and fed a special diet, Wood said.

“There are people trying to do the right thing with locally grown and natural meats, and for some, it’s a free for all,” said Matt Hinckley, a butcher and owner of Hinckley’s Fancy Meats in Lake Helen. “It’s so difficult to police.”

Sourcing local products is timeconsuming, Hinckley said. There isn’t enough supply to support all the menu claims about serving local meat, he added.

Meat isn’t the only menu item restaurants have been admonished over. Several restaurants got violations for using cheaper varieties of seafood. An inspection in May of Yamasan Sushi & Grill reportedly listing red snapper in its sushi and instead was using tilapia. Owner Jian Lin, through an employee translating, said there was a translation issue with its distributor. The restaurant reprinted its menu to read white fish instead of snapper.

Breakfast chain First Watch’s Winter Garden location was reprimanded on four visits between July and October for calling orange juice freshsqueezed when it was bottled.

First Watch corporate chef Shane Schaibly said the juice is squeezed by a manufacturer in Florida but never frozen. State standards say “freshsqueezed juice” must be less than 24 hours old. Schaibly said the chain is changing menus to say “cold squeezed” in January to indicate the juice is never frozen and does not use preservatives.

However, some restaurants say it can be tough to immediately supply evidence to support menu claims. Duffy’s Sports Grill in Lake Mary received a violation during a February inspection for advertising Cheshire Pork in meatballs.

Jason Emmett, CEO of the West Palm Beach-based chain, said the restaurant did use Cheshire Pork, but the documentation wasn’t available at the restaurant. An invoice provided to the Orlando Sentinel from supplier Buckhead Beef of Auburndale Florida indicates the meat was Heritage Farms Cheshire Pork.

“It was a lesson for us,” Emmett said. “When this happened, we sent something out to the whole company. We told them to please put [the invoice] in the health inspection book.”