Rules Eased on Vietnamese Food

Hoping to resolve a long-standing culture clash between health inspectors and Little Saigon restaurants, the Orange County Health Care Agency has eased temperature restrictions on Vietnamese dishes such as spring rolls, rice cakes and pork-stuffed buns.

Restaurants will be allowed to keep certain foods at room temperature for up to four hours as long as they label products with expiration dates and throw them out when they expire.

Until now, food had to be kept either cold (below 41 degrees) or hot (above 135 degrees) -- rules that sacrificed traditional flavors and textures, restaurateurs say. Rice patties, called banh day, get hard when refrigerated. Keeping spring rolls hot would cause the tender rice-paper wrapper to shrivel; refrigerating them would cause the wrapper to crack or burst.

The pilot program, funded by a $45,000 Food and Drug Administration grant, is aimed at bringing the sides together.

In the past, health officials have taken a hard-line stance with some ethnic restaurants and food providers, citing vendors and confiscating improperly stored food. In response, some business owners have tried to duck the inspectors by hiding food or hurriedly shoving it into a refrigerator.

“The agency realizes that the customs of the Vietnamese community need to be protected,” said program coordinator John Ralls.

At a town hall meeting Wednesday, community members and government officials discussed the program, which began five weeks ago with eight Westminster restaurants. County officials say they hope more will sign on and will consider requests to participate from other ethnic restaurants.

Reaction is mixed.

Restaurant owners say they appreciate the county’s efforts to find middle ground, but believe the program will fail because it does not bend enough to the needs -- and tastes -- of Vietnamese food merchants and diners.

“We support the program to have fresh food, but it’s very hard for us,” said Nga Pham, owner of Kim Huong, a wholesale bakery in Westminster. “We have lost 50% of our profit because we’re throwing food away all the time.”

She and others said it is unfair to expect food to be discarded after four hours because there have been no reported cases of food poisoning.

“It’s a setback for us. It doesn’t give us enough time to turn around the products. I’ve been losing money,” said Pham. “It sits out, but it’s still fresh food. It’s just not cold.”

One particular worry for food makers and sellers is banh chung, a rice cake that carries historical and cultural meaning. The cake takes 10 hours to make and is usually stored at room temperature for days. Chefs wake early to start cooking the cake, which is eaten only during the Lunar New Year.

“Vietnamese food is not the same as American foods,” Pham said. “If you put it in the fridge, it can dry up, crack or change its taste.”

Lisa Dang, manager of Brodard, a Garden Grove restaurant known for its spring rolls, said customers don’t like cold foods: “If it’s cold, they think it’s old.”

The restaurant owners say they agree that if people get sick, food practices need to change. So far, they say, they are not aware of problems.

County health officials logged 640 complaints in 2004 for tainted food, but they do not keep track of how many cases were the result of food from Orange County’s 3,500 Vietnamese food-related businesses.

Healthcare officials say foods with rice, beans and vegetables left at room temperature for an extended period attract bacteria, which can result in diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, fever, and, occasionally, death.

The Health Care Agency began searching for a solution in 2003, forming a committee of business owners, health educators and community leaders that focused on preserving traditional Vietnamese foods while complying with health regulations. The group selected various traditional foods for testing.

“Ultimately, the lab results showed that it is safe to store the traditional foods at room temperatures,” said Ralls, the program coordinator. “The bacteria takes about three to four hours before it grows quickly.”

A state law that took effect in January 2004 paved the way for the pilot program by establishing time as a public health control, in addition to temperature.

In Los Angeles County, health officials have been making similar concessions since January.

“This will ease certain tension with ethnic and many other kinds of foods like chicken, roast beef and pizza,” said Terrence Powell, an ombudsman for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. “We had tension with pizza makers who wanted to leave slices out and put them in the oven when customers ordered them. Others wanted to make their sandwiches and leave them out. Sushi chefs wanted to roll their food and leave it out.”

But Powell said the change was not made necessarily to be culturally sensitive. It occurred because scientific evidence proved that the change would not endanger diners, he said.

“This is science on the side of an operator,” Powell said. “A byproduct is that we’re able to be more flexible.”

Some health experts say the program will succeed only if restaurant owners follow the rules. Previously, they were forced to pay fines -- in some cases, those who could have been cited simply hid food from inspectors.

Under the relaxed rules, they must promise to throw away expired food.

“The [program] sounds good from a public health point of view, but the economics might change” things, said Dr. Ashok Jain of USC.

Store owners might continue selling foods past their expiration dates or re-refrigerate or reheat foods because of economics, Jain said.

“From the scientific point of view, at least one thing we don’t want is re-refrigerating food,” Jain said.

“That would be much more dangerous than eating food after six hours.”

Times staff writer David Pierson contributed to this report.