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Street Vendor Seafood Actually OK, Health Department Says
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 16, 2009
Modified Dec 16, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 16, 2009
Modified Dec 16, 2009
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After freaking out street vendors and the bloggers who love them yesterday, the Health Department has emailed us to say it was all a big misunderstanding. A provision in the Health Department's new code [pdf] raised eyebrows by declaring that "no fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal...shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit." That's what it says, but it's not what they meant!
A spokesperson for the Health Department just sent us this statement: "The Health Department currently prohibits, and will continue to prohibit the sale of raw shellfish from a mobile food cart. However, the wording in the recent amendments to the Health Code effectively prohibit the sale of all seafood, raw and cooked, and that was unintentional. The Health Department intends to fix this, and will not enforce this amendment as written. So, everybody take a deep breath and stop taking the Health Department's rules so literally.
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health department
nyc
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seafood
street vendor
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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