Many of us don’t think about how food is handled when we eat out in a restaurant or purchase prepared foods at a grocery store. It’s food: we buy it, we eat it, we feel good.
Yet behind the scenes there are many rules and steps involved in safely producing, making, and getting food into your hands.
Street Cheese takes food safety seriously. We have current food King County Food Handler permits, and one of us is ServSafe Certified. Our business is licensed through the Seattle & King County Public Health Department as a Risk Category II Caterer, which allows us to work with “potentially hazardous foods” such as dairy products and cured meats.
We follow all health and safety guidelines regulating cheese insofar as we break down wheels into wedges or plated spreads for our customers.
Since cheese is classified as a “control time/temperature for safety food,” food businesses must operate out of an inspected kitchen in order to process or work with cheese. That’s right: It is illegal to process or work with cheese in a home kitchen, and cottage licensing does not allow for licensees to work with cheese.
We are proud members of The Crate, Discover Burien‘s micro-business incubator commissary kitchen.
With a shared space comes a shared environment. It is important for us to note that while we sanitize often, we work right next to bakers and in an environment in which folks are processing all of the Big 9 allergens.
Since cheese is a living food and it is home to communities of mold, yeast, and bacteria that can easily spread, cheesemongers are notorious clean freaks. We want to ensure the cheese you receive is as the cheesemaker intended it to be, so we sanitize often and thoroughly with food-safe sanitizers, always use clean knives and cutting surfaces, and keep the cheese cold until it is ready to be served.*
*Cheese is best consumed at room-temperature, so we always recommend you set your cheese out about an hour before eating for optimal enjoyment!