In April 1952 , public health officialsappearedat city manse in Minneapolis , Minnesota , to voice a concern . The city ’s Dyckman Hotel , they argued , hold an illicit buffet - dash spread , dubbed a smörgåsbord , that they believed to be a serious threat to community health . They cheer the city council ’s health and hospitals committee to reject the hotel ’s license refilling for food help .
“ The smörgåsbord is the portion of food at a lower disbursal at the cost of sanitation , ” do health decision maker Dr. Claire Gates said . Left unbridled , these solid food spreads could prompt malady and perhaps precede to restaurants deliver money on waitstaff by letting customers gorge themselves with their own utensil .
It would be another few age before Minneapolis — and the creation — was given a solution . One that came from a germophobe .
Germ Theory
The problem of what to do with self - serve intellectual nourishment station had been around long before those wellness officials assembled . While cafeteria layout were common in hospital , schools , prisons , and military barracks , they were typically staff on one side by a server and set-apart from germs or food caress on the other side by a pane of glass . ( ThinkChipotle . ) When Swedish - style smörgåsbords ( smörgåsmeaning“food , ” specifically an open - faced sandwich , andbordmeaning “ board ” ) issue forth to America at the 1939 World ’s Fair andoffereda multifariousness of options ( like dusty cuts ) within reaching of patrons , foodies were amazed . Now people could sample a little of everything — and depending on the policies of the restaurant , could pile on a wondrous amount of intellectual nourishment for one humbled price .
Johnny Garneau was one of many entrepreneurs to foot up on the trend . According to K. Annabelle Smith , who author a 2013Smithsonianpiece on Garneau , this character of self - military service eating place picked up steam in the forties and 1950s , with Garneau open up his own in 1952 — the same year Minnesotans were grumble over similar buffets .
Instead of Swedish food staples , Garneau set out more American favourite like potatoes and roast beef . To underscore this tameness , hedubbedit Johnny Garneau ’s American Style Smörgåsbord .
But Garneau , who opened several successful location in Pennsylvania and Ohio , found the lack of hygiene disturbing .
“ Being the germophobe that he was , he could n’t stand the great unwashed blend in down the smörgåsbord smelling things and have their nose too close to the nutrient , ” Barbara Garneau Kelley , Johnny ’s girl , severalise Smithsonian . “ He said to his technologist , ‘ We have to forge something . I do n’t require these citizenry sneeze on the food for thought . ’ ”
The “ sneeze safety machine ” had been around in name for some time but typically refer to the aforementioned panel of glass that prevented the great unwashed from dish out out food directly to their plate . Alternately , some usedsneeze guardtoreferto a stainless blade roadblock that blocked germs but also blocked the view of the food .
Garneau was n’t the only one seek to come up with a answer . In 1956 , school table appendage in Cincinnati , Ohio , debatedthe practicality of a horizontal plate of glass in school cafeterias with an possibility at the bottom that allowed scholar to dish out their own food . ( One school functionary complained the set - up was awkward , since students spite up knock over trays as they pulled them out . )
In 1957 , a Louisiana school districtnotedthat a cafeteria in Opelousas was to be equipped with a 23 - column inch - high home plate of vertical glass , leaving a 7 - column inch opening at the bottom . In May 1959 , one Illinois wayside eatery , the Oasis , wassaidto have a “ clear plastic sneeze precaution ” on the premiss .
But Garneau ’s idea was to make the glass horizontal ( or diagonal ) rather than vertical . The drinking glass would block snot , germs , and other particulates from being spit out over the nutrient but still allow for guest to serve themselves while maintain a full thought of the menu .
Garneau ’s twist was welcome news for sneeze guard adversaries who matt-up a full barricade was undue . During the great smörgåsbord controversy of the 1950s , any attempt to keep diners from their serving spoons and hot meals was met with patronage .
“ A honorable deal of the pleasure of a smörgåsbord is in pick around in the mouth - lacrimation array of Pisces , meat , cheese , and scads of other delicacies,”wrotean anonymousDes Moines Registercolumnist in 1952 . “ Any artificial barrier between the epicurean and the [ food ] , such as a nominate ‘ sneeze guard ’ and a clean - coated disher - upper , would remove most of the substantive gusto from this ancient and delicious ‘ repastime ’ … Moreover , we ’ll wager more people have been lay low by bold gluttony than ever fall dupe of a bare microbe at a smörgåsbord . ”
It ’s not quite clear when Garneau implemented his sneeze guard , but his claim to it is preserved . In March 1959 , he filed apatentfor an all - encompassing “ cover food service table ” that consisted of a buffet with a vertical , curved glass dome that hold food mucus - loose . The patent of invention was granted in December of that year ; Garneau soon instal them in all of his eating house .
Snot’s Landing
When smörgåsbords — at least , ones with Swedish panache — dwindled in popularity , Garneau choose for a steakhouse root but kept the buffets and sneeze guards . By the 1960s , the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) was mandating their utilisation as part of standard healthful practice session — just in fourth dimension for the rise of the ego - serve salad bar .
But do sneeze safety machine work ? A guard may barricade droplets from above , but children are often at eye level ( and therefore nozzle and mouth story ) with the assortment of foods . bug can also get via dirty home base — customers should be taking a new one with them each time they make their attack — or from food beingkeptin the “ peril zone ” temperatures ( 40 to 140 degree Fahrenheit ) where bacteria can thrive .
And then there are the muddied serving spoonful and tongs . But Garneau had a solution for that , too . In 1995 , after selling off his eating house , Garneau formulate a more hygienic do utensil that had interchangeable handles . When one patron was done loading up a home plate , they could discard the handle ; the next person in line could snap in their own . He called it the Sani - Serve . Thispatent , which Garneau was granted in 1997 , was possibly too laborious for buffet aficionados and did n’t catch up with on . While the sneeze safeguard remains , so , too , do the germ - covered serve spoon .
