Jefferson County Public Health: Building Capacity to Improve Retail FoodEstablishment Inspections in Jefferson County Colorado.Project Summary:Statement of Objectives: To strengthen the retail food safety system by reducing oreliminating the occurrence of illness and deaths from food produced at the retail levelin Jefferson County Colorado.Methods:The Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) regulatory retail food program willbuild capacity to improve retail establishment inspections using the existingstrategic framework and continuous program improvement model provided by theFood and Drug Administration Voluntary National Retail Food RegulatoryProgram Standards. By implementing procedures and methods that will facilitatelong term improvements in the regulatory retail food program, food safetyactivities will be designed, evaluated and continuously improved as they becomea part of the day to day operation of the regulatory retail food program inJefferson CountyEnvironmental Health Specialists and program supervisors will collaborate todevelop and design an inspection program that a) improves documentation of thecompliance status of foodborne illness risk factors (risk factors); b) reports andtracks the results of baseline data to determine the risk factors most in need ofimprovement c) assures greater uniformity during inspections of retailestablishments and d) builds collaborative partnerships with consumers, industryand regulatory partners. The regulatory retail food program will also implement arisk based methodology based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points(HACCP) principles that will determine inspection frequency and prioritization ofregulatory activities.JCPH will elevate the current regulatory retail food program by promoting greateruniformity while reducing foodborne illness and death in Jefferson CountyColorado.
Jefferson County Public Health: Building Capacity to Improve Retail Food Establishment Inspections in Jefferson County Colorado. Project Narrative: It is significant to Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of illness and deaths from food produced at the retail level within the large urban Colorado population served. JCPH plans to elevate the regulatory retail food program to a premiere program in the state of Colorado by showing measurable improvement in our capability to protect the public health. Collecting reliable risk factor data, prioritizing inspections based on risk and building collaborative partnerships will become the primary focus. Regulatory direction will be guided by the goals to reduce risk factors known to cause or contribute to foodborne illness and promote active control of these risk factors by managers of food establishments using methods that can be duplicated and sustained over time.
