Sanitizing 101 ( Drop-in Learning Lab)

  Sanitizers are used in lots of EH functions and there are numerous different types that are available.  This session will show attendees how to properly test some of the more common types of sanitizers. i.e. Quat and chlorine.  Attendees will learn how to dispense and test sanitizer concentrations and the different types of test kits available.  They will get to see firsthand that when you swish the test strip that it does in fact increase the concentration reading on the test strip.  Participants will get to see how hard it is to remove sanitizer from a surface that was sanitizer with too high of a concentration.  In addition, the learning lab will also demonstrate how sanitizer can cling to the inside of a spray bottle.  Attendees can participate in any or all demonstrations based on their knowledge and needs and will be able to problem solve issues identified in the field as it relates to sanitizers better and with more confidence.                             

Food Service Inspectors Promoting Restaurant Worker Protection- a Pilot Assessment and Intervention Study (20m Lecture)

While conducting routine food safety inspections, Bay Area environmental health inspectors identified at least one occupational hazard in approximately 69% of the 261 food facilities inspected as part of a pilot project focusing on preventing work-related injuries. Over 200,000 such injuries occur in U.S. food establishments every year. Recognizing the unique access that environmental health inspectors have to the kitchen and other areas of food facilities when conducting periodic health inspections, UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) recruited two Bay Area counties to partner in the development of a pilot assessment and intervention project. LOHP worked with the inspectors of each county to develop distinct protocols for hazard identification and intervention. San Francisco opted for a limited, less time consuming version of the pilot which included a 5-item checklist of sentinel worker safety hazards for the assessment, and an intervention consisting of sharing a letter explaining the pilot effort and providing the facility operator with a brochure on restaurant worker safety. Contra Costa County developed a more time-intensive version including a 15-item checklist with an intervention that distributed the OSHA brochure, targeted safety tipsheets, on-the-spot education, and referral for trainings with LOHP.

San Francisco found that 60% of the restaurants lacked certain required labor signage and 13% of the facilities had ventilation issues. Contra Costa County staff found the most common sentinel hazard was the lack of required labor postings, slippery floors, inadequately stocked first aid kits, and absence of non-slip mats. Key challenges to the project included inspectors having to balance “core” food safety responsibilities with the voluntary pilot activities focused on worker safety. Local environmental health departments will likely need to adapt the effort for their own use – one protocol will not “fit all.” The pilot showed promise in collaborating with, as one inspector put it, “the perfect people to be communicating” about worker health and safety in food facilities. The presentation will expand on the findings of the sentinel hazard assessment, feedback from inspectors and operators on the interventions, the evaluation of the two protocols, and how they may be applicable in the participants’ jurisdictions.

Incorporating Emergency Preparedness into Retail Food Facility Inspections (50m Lecture)

As a regulator, what can you do now to make food facilities stronger and capable of moving forward after a disaster? Decreased time, increased inspection numbers, and relating food safety risk factors to operators have raised the challenges regulators need to meet. Integrating emergency preparedness into the communication phase of the inspection process is significant. While discussing good retail practices with the operator, include additional activities such as securing equipment and maintaining an emergency kit for each employee. While handing out food safety tips, include templates for an Emergency Response Plan or Business Continuity Plan (www.ready.gov/business). The extra time taken with the operator may decrease the time spent assessing the facility after a disaster occurs. The goal of this presentation is to assist you, the regulator, in accomplishing the objective of incorporating disaster preparedness with food safety in food facilities within your jurisdiction.

Food-Safe Schools: Food Safety Beyond the Cafeteria (50m Learning Lab Tabletop/Group Exercise)

After the highly successful 2013 NEHA AEC Learning Lab "Food-Safe Schools Action Guide: Creating a Culture of Food Safety," attendees expressed interest in helping schools better manage food safety in non-traditional settings such as classrooms, kiosks, field trips, and other locations outside of the cafeteria. Food-Safe Schools: Food Safety Beyond the Cafeteria will do just that. By attending this session, participants will better understand the unique food safety requirements associated with Federally funded school nutrition programs, such as the National School Lunch Program (NSLP); learn about the operational complexities of the NSLP – such as serving food in non-traditional settings – that influence food safety; and explore how to collaborate with their school community to effectively, and practicably, address food safety challenges. Attendees also will familiarize themselves with food safety resources developed specifically for school nutrition programs. As a Learning Lab, this session will be primarily interactive through group exercises and roundtable discussions.

Focusing Disney Magic on Food Safety (1h 50m Learning Lab Tabletop/Group Exercise)

The goal of this learning lab is to demonstrate the uses of technology in food safety and to understand how it might impact an inspection audit.  This learning lab will provide an overview of some of the latest Disney and related technology being applied to foodservice food safety.  Imagine FASTPASS for food safety.  Bypass the complexity.  Go straight to the critical control points.  Take your process for a ride.  And when it’s all over, you get a digital picture for your records.  The magic is built on more than a decade of HACCP best practices recognized by an IAFP Black Pearl award.  This interactive session demo will place some of these tools into your hands such as wireless temperature probes that talk to android type devices.  The session will culminate with a discussion on how environmental health officials might inspect or audit facilities using these types of technologies.  Lastly, the group will brainstorm their magic vision of what could or should be in the world of technology based food safety.

Pick a Favorite Technology To Help You Improve Inspection-Based Handwashing (50m Lecture)

Foodservice handwashing is less than desired by both operators and their corps of coaches, 30,000+ health inspectors.  A CDC study found that 8.6 handwashes per employee hour are required to meet the guidelines in the FDA’s Model Food Code.

This interactive session will answer the major questions and help shape future innovations based on audience experience.

While both operator and regulator, understand that this 8.6 level of handwash frequency will not be achieved; the inspector has to make the call – safe or unsafe, in essence, defining which handwashes are the priorities.

Unpublished studies will be reviewed which indicate a rate of 0.5 handwashes per employee hour is commonplace and can be multiplied upward by going beyond observation with 24/7 compliance monitoring technologies.

Four distinctly different technologies are presented in the form of individual case studies where low compliance is raised simply by motivating with measurements. Each technology appeals to different operator cultures dealing in a spectrum from policeman to coach.

These technologies are new but commercially available and include video, RFID (radio frequency identification), infrared and a manual entry system.

Containing an outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis in Galway – the role of the Environmental Health Service (20m Lecture)

In mid-February 2007, there was a small rise in the number of laboratory-notified cases of cryptosporidiosis in the city and county of Galway, Ireland in comparison to February 2006. A further increase in cases was observed in early March 2007. An investigation was immediately established .Analysis of cases revealed that all resided in County Galway, with most in Galway City and were all in areas served by public water supplies or group water schemes using Lough Corrib as a water source.

To prevent any further spread of illness via potentially contaminated water, an incident response team was set up and a 'boil water' notice was issued. The notice applied to all areas in Galway City and to areas of the county served by Lough Corrib. General practitioners, hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacists, dentists, food premises, public houses, and children’s daycare centres were contacted directly.
The outbreak turned out to be the biggest Cryptosporidiosis outbreak ever in Ireland, with over 200 confirmed cases. This session outlines the Galway Environmental Health Departments response to this large outbreak, and demonstrates the multi disciplinary approach needed in such situations. The Galway Environmental Health Departments contribution to the investigation of the outbreak was complicated by the fact the outbreak and boil water notice applied to a number of water supplies, involved two different local authorities , there was an urban and rural spread of cases, the outbreak continued for a number of months, thus impacting on several large social and tourist events in Galway city , there was massive media interest , wide scale public concern and impact on food businesses. Other factors that arose during the investigation which also had a bearing on the Departments response were local politics, a focus on unauthorised developments and exposure of possible inadequate and poorly managed public infrastructural funding.