Preparing Restaurant Health Inspectors for Menu Labeling in Los Angeles County Retail Food Establishments

Background: In response to the recent adoption of state and federal menu labeling regulations, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) began developing a program in 2010 to locally monitor menu labeling in eligible restaurants. A training module to prepare health inspectors from the Restaurant Hygiene Inspection Program (RHIP) was developed as part of this program. This paper describes the initial stages of the training process. Methods: A multi-component training module on menu labeling was administered to 16 experienced health inspectors during the initial pilot. The module: 1) reviewed the state and federal menu labeling laws including preemption; 2) detailed how to monitor menu labeling compliance; 3) provided an in-service on the use of the Environmental Scan Tool (ECT); and 4) through a self-assessment survey, provided feedback to the trainees on their level of confidence and proficiency with the process. Further trainings are planned to include all RHIP health inspectors. Results: Data from the training session suggest that health inspectors have relatively high levels of confidence in using the ECT and related procedures; on a “confidence” scale of 1 to 10 (e.g. 1=low, 10=high), the mean response was 8.5. Additionally, the inter-rater reliability for this tool was high (kappa=.68). Conclusions: Preliminary results in developing a local monitoring program and in designing a training module suitable for improving the knowledge and confidence of health inspectors to appropriately evaluate menu labeling in restaurants show promise. This training module may have applications in other jurisdictions interested in monitoring of menu labeling.