Board aims to get tough on food violations

A policy passed at the May Flathead County Board of Health meeting is meant to clamp down on food establishments with multiple poor inspections.

The program requires plans of compliance to remedy critical violations and attendance at safe food-handling courses by owners and/or managers.

The board asked for the policy out of frustration with food establishments that score poorly on unannounced inspections, only to receive another C or lower score on subsequent unannounced regular inspections.

County Health Officer Joe Russell said the new policy affects food establishments that receive a C or lower on successive regular inspections or two out of three inspections.

“We’ll put in a plan of compliance including an accelerated inspection schedule,” he said. “We’ll charge for all inspections after posting the plan of compliance.”

In the policy document, the department says that studies have found links between establishments with poor inspection results and the likelihood of contracting a food-borne illness. Concern rises with chronically low scores.

During inspections, inspectors mark restaurants and other food preparation businesses down for violations defined as either critical or noncritical. Practices related to food contamination and temperature problems that pose a risk are considered critical violations.

Health inspectors require food establishments to immediately correct critical violations with a follow-up inspection to verify the action. Noncritical violations — related to condition of equipment, cleaning or food storage —  must be corrected by the next routine inspection.

If a business receives a C or lower on two out or three inspections or two in a row, the department staff will develop a plan of compliance that identifies chronic violations or practices carrying a high risk of causing food-borne illness.

The plan will provide a deadline for correcting these problems.

Also as part of the plan, the people most responsible for the operation must

successfully complete a safe food handling course of study.

The plan passed unanimously.

Board member Dr. David Myerowitz, who raised the issue at past meetings, complimented the department for coming up with the policy.

During her report on the Environmental Health Department, Wendee Jacobs thanked the board for the new policy, saying the policy tightened up procedures so decision-making was less subjective. She reported that sanitarians have issued about 100 inspection scorecards for food establishments to place on public display.

When asked about the reaction from food establishments, Jacobs said things have been “strangely quiet.” Kate Cassidy said she tells establishments that they must hang them in public view but has not yet followed up to see if they have complied.

Health board members recently adopted the new program providing cards with the sanitation grades from A+ to F to restaurants and all retail purveyors of food to post for consumers to gauge their risk of acquiring a food-borne illness.

Letter grades differ from school marks where a C means average. Health inspectors define letters as:

Grade A — These facilities typically exhibit very good to acceptable levels of sanitation.

Grade B — These facilities typically exhibit acceptable to marginal levels of sanitation.

Grade C — These facilities exhibit poor to marginal levels of sanitation.

Grade D or lower — These facilities pose considerable risk to the public and immediate steps must be taken or closure procedures will be started.

Russell encourages the public to inquire about the scorecard if they don’t see it on display.

In other business at the meeting, Jody White, director of Community Health, presented an H1N1 (swine flu virus) vaccine report.

White said the evaluation found areas to improve in the future, such as fully implementing the incident-command procedures at in-department clinics to keep communication flowing between the first and second floors.

She said demobilization needs attention to make certain that unused vaccine gets used somewhere else. No guidance was provided from the state regarding end dates of vaccine and an end date for the incident.

Strengths of the vaccine distribution program were the clinics at the fairgrounds and outlying areas, staff knowledge of procedures, collaboration with providers, schools and hospitals, as well as distribution to providers.

White and board members discussed the problem of parents not bringing children back for their second shot. White said she has no answer yet about the effectiveness of the single dose or whether next season’s flu shot — which includes H1N1 in the formulation — provides the needed booster.

Myerowitz said he was astounded to learn that about 25 percent of physicians nationwide did not recommend that their patients receive the vaccine.

“It didn’t look like we had a very good national response,” he said. “We did better locally than we did nationally.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.