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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Margaret L. Phillips, PhD, Daniel Boatright, PhD, FRSH, Brenda L. Elledge, MPH, Heather Basara, MS, and Robert Lynch, PhD. College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 801 NE 13th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, 405-271-2070, Margaret-Phillips@ouhsc.edu
Restaurant inspection is a primary public health activity intended to prevent foodborne illness. However, it is unclear whether restaurant inspectors function more effectively as enforcers to identify food code violations or as educators to promote good food safety practices. As part of a study of antecedents of foodborne illness, a random sample of inspection files for high, medium, and low risk food service establishments in Oklahoma County were abstracted. The data for 256 establishments included 5657 inspections over the period 1986-2000. The six most frequently cited critical violations were presence of pests, improper food temperature, unrestricted presence of personnel with infections, improper personnel hygiene, improper sanitization, and improper storage of toxics. For each of these six violations, most of the citations were accounted for by a small number of establishments that had recurrent violations. In the worst case, several establishments were cited for pests 15-19 times in 12-14 years. The persistence of the same violations in certain establishments for more than a decade may be interpreted as a sign that enforcement practices were not effective at promoting fundamental change in substandard establishments. On the positive side, the fact that a majority of establishments did not have recurrent citations of the same critical violations indicates that consistent application of food safety practices in restaurants is achievable.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Food Safety, Local Public Health Agencies
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.