The first component of the SWUPHD Environmental Health Department (EHD) new'Risk Based Inspection Implementation Program' (RBIIP) involves a significant increase to thetraining of internal and external stakeholders - so that increased awareness, retainedknowledge, experience and active managerial control skills of participating individuals will leadto noteworthy reductions of hazards and other risk factors known to cause or contribute to food-borne illness. This training would include information about plan reviews and advanced foodpreparation techniques such as reduced oxygen packaging and sushi preparation. The second ingredient of the SWUPHD-EHD new RBIIP concerns a considerableincrease in the number of visits and time spent at food handler sites annually, in an effort tomagnify the compliance percentages across the board within the SWUPHD-EHD jurisdictionalboundaries. Accomplishing this objective will involve hiring one additional full-timeEnvironmental Health Scientist in the department to allow for additional time to be spent(quantitatively and qualitatively) at the various sites served. The final element of the SWUPHD-EHD new RBIIP incorporates new communicationstrategies amongst all SWUPHD stakeholders. These additional measures will include aquarterly newsletter delivered electronically (preferably) or via standard mail to all entitiesserved within geographical jurisdiction; an annual food safety town-hall meeting at variousMSA's within each of the five jurisdictional counties served (one in each per year); thedevelopment, delivery and collection of an annual 'feedback survey' (preferably in electronicformat within the current agency website) involving all SWUPHD-EHD constituents withinjurisdictional boundaries in an effort to collect, analyze and improve agency philosophies andpractices toward garnering the affective organizational commitment of all interestedstakeholders; and the creation of a public inspection notice section on the current agencywebsite for public viewing and awareness. Additional resources applicable to the successfulimplementation and sustainability of the three primary factors of the SWUPHD-EHD new RBIIPwill include an annual appropriation for professional grant writing and reporting fees;supplemental office supplies and technological support equipment (updated computers); andannual compensation raises for SWUPHD-EHD staff.
The Southwest Utah Public Health Department (SWUPHD) offers the following Risk- Based Inspection Implementation Plan (RBIIP) in response to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) federal grant opportunity entitled Limited Competition: Advancing Conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS) (U18). The newly designed SWUPHD RBIIP will greatly assist the SWUPHD - Environmental Health Department (EHD) with advancing organizational efforts within its assigned jurisdiction - Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington Counties in the state of Utah...toward improving and building upon existing programs that will more readily align with a nationally integrated food safety system and VNRFRP standards by reducing the risk factors known to cause or contribute to food-borne illness;promoting active managerial controls of such risk factors;and enhancing the alignment of the SWUPHD-EHD with the Retail Program Standards (RPS) framework concerning both traditional and emerging approaches to food safety.
