Health issues at Marshalltown Maid-Rite? Owner protests state ruling

A state demand that Taylor's Maid-Rite in Marshalltown change the way it's cooked loose-meat sandwiches for 82 years has some customers all riled up.

About 1,400 of them joined the “Save Taylor's Maid-Rite” page on Facebook within 12 hours after the site was launched over the weekend.

“That kind of shows how our customers feel about this,” said owner David Short, who's been fighting a state citation against the way the restaurant prepares its ground beef for three years.

Short is the fourth generation owner of the restaurant, which was started by Cliff Taylor in 1928. His parents, Sandy Taylor Short and Con Short, operate the restaurant. David Short also runs the architectural salvage business he owns in Des Moines.

The restaurant is in trouble for the way it uses the “Maid-Rite Cooker,” a three-foot-long rectangular cooker with a sloping bottom. Ground beef is dropped into the low end, cooked from its original pink color to a deep brown and stored for serving at the high end until it's served.

Even though the restaurant has never had food safety complaints, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals says the cooker can't be used that way. Live bacteria or other contamination from uncooked meat could potentially get into the cooked meat waiting to be served, it says.

David Short argues against the change. He says the temperature of the cooker is hot enough to destroy any bacteria, but state officials have never investigated that aspect.

Taylor's Maid-Rite was cited over the cooker in December 2007, and appealed. The restaurant lost its appeal of the citation before a state administrative law judge last September. The judge suggested the restaurant simply modify the cooker to separate it into holding and cooking compartments.

That didn't satisfy David Short, who further appealed the ruling to Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals Director Dean Lerner.

Lerner isn't expected to be sympathetic.

“We feel we'll be ruled against when it does come out,” David Short said.

Taylor's Maid-Rite gave away 600 loose meat sandwiches made in the cooker last week to lawmakers in Des Moines, along with letters urging them to intervene.

The state isn't the only objector to the cooking process. Maid-Rite Corp. CEO and co-owner Bradley Burt has asking state regulators to put the squeeze on Maid-Rite franchisees who use the old cookers since he acquired the restaurant chain about seven years ago. In a letter to lawmakers, Burt said “very few” of the 70-plus franchised Maid-Rite restaurants still use the old style cookers, and fixing the problem isn't a budget buster. He said Taylor's Maid-Rite can solve the problem by buying a $50 roaster oven to hold meat after it's cooked.

Cedar Rapids Maid-Rite owner Jim Hanson said his restaurant's use of the Maid-Rite cooker has never been a problem. He said the meat is prepared in the cooker, transferred to a separate container until a batch is finished, and then returned to the cooker for holding.

It's not a matter of expense to David Short. He said the cooking style is needed to meet the volume demands of his busy kitchen, and produces tastier sandwiches.