So there was this article in the Stranger about how if only the county had less stringent food safety rules and if downtown merchants were only less cranky about people using the sidewalk in front of their stores, Seattle could have a vibrant street food scene. Which may or may not be true, what with the general disposition of Seattlites being what it is, we rarely get real vibrant around here. But it got me to wondering: do counties with less stringent food safety rules have noticably higher rates of food poisoning? I haven’t yet found a county-by-county comparison, but I did find a states-level map of food poisoning, and whee-doggies, Washington state has a problem! Let’s hope it’s due to food-safety laggards outside of King County, or all the inspections are for naught!