Health and safety gone mad? This morning, we spotted a story in trade paper Caterersearch that burger company Byron have stopped selling hamburgers cooked rare. Apparently one local authority has taken the company to task, and in response they've regretfully decided to stop serving burgers rare at all of their restaurants for the sake of consistency.
"At Byron we serve hamburgers the way they should be," Byron founder Tom Byng told Hot Dinners. "We think that proper hamburgers taste best when cooked medium and our resounding success demonstrates that our customers think so too. At the same time, we have always respected people’s right to choose for themselves how they like their hamburgers cooked, whether it be rare, medium rare or indeed well done (perish the thought).
"However, following questions raised by one local authority, we are disappointed to say that for the small number of customers who ask for their hamburger to be cooked rare, we are going to have to say ‘no’.
"Since opening nearly four years ago, our quality and safety processes have been constantly checked and assessed, as you’d expect, keeping food safety at the heart of what we do. Over two million hamburgers later, we continue to put the safety of our customers first. We’ll continue to serve our hamburgers medium as a standard, and indeed any other way (other than rare) upon request."
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