Oregon food-safety inspection gets another set of eyes

Thereare nearly 10,000 food establishments licensed by the Oregon Department ofAgriculture and 37 food safety inspectors responsible for checking up on thosebusinesses.

Trying to getto every facility on an annual basis is difficult, ifnot impossible.

But thanks to ODA’s Weights and Measures Program, another setof trained eyes are helping provide some basic oversight of low risk foodestablishmentsaround the state.

“Wethink this is a great example of efficiency through internal collaboration,”says ODA Director Katy Coba. “With so many licensed food establishments, wesimply haven’t had enough food safety inspectorsto check all facilities atleast once a year. So we have trained our weights and measures inspectors tocarry some of the load.”

Internally,it’s called the “Just Checking In” Food Safety Audit.The cooperative agreement between two ODAprograms helps leverage the agency’s presence in the field, increaseefficiency, and direct resourceswhere needed. Currently, ODA’s 20 weights andmeasures inspectors are checking in on 366 businesses that have both a foodsafety license and a weights and measures license.

With those inspectors spreadacross thestate – just like ODA’s food safety inspectors – identified low riskfacilities throughout Oregon will get the once-a-year inspection. Thesefacilities are often combination gas stations/convenience stores that weightsandmeasures inspectors visit annually anyway. Some of them offer more thanjust pre-packaged food.

“It’sa natural thing for our inspectors to do,” says Steven Harrington, manager ofODA’s Weights and Measures Program. “Since we are already there to test gaspumps or check small grocery scales, we can takean additional 20 minutes to doa basic inspection of the facility to see if there are any food safety concerns.If there is a problem, it gets kicked back to our Food Safety Program.”

Inspectorsuse a “Just Checking In” form to record their observations, with a copy goingto both the business owner and the Food Safety Program. The checklist is basic.Weights and measures inspectors, whohave received training from food safetystaff, are looking to ensure handwashing facilities are available, the facilitydoes not have a pest problem, and that certain foods are held at the propertemperature.

Many of thelow-risk businesses are just serving packaged food,but some do have food held in hot cases and cold cases. Valuable information isprovided to the food safety inspector.

Sometimes,ODA receives consumer complaints about these low risk facilities and willrespond with a food safety inspector paying a site visit. But having anotherset of ODA eyes routinely looking at theseestablishments helps augment thework of the Food Safety Program and could prevent something that would end upbeing, at best, a consumer complaint.

“It’sa great opportunity for another ODA program to help us spend our resourcesjudiciously,” says Food Safety Program Manager Frank Barcellos. “It frees upour inspectors to concentrate on the more complex,higher risk facilities aroundthe state that really require an annual inspection by us. The inspections madeby our Weights and Measures Program are an important part of our arsenal toensure that all establishments aredoing things right.”

The”Just Checking In” audits often provide important information that isn’tnecessarily on the checklist. Some businesses have expanded since their lastfood safety inspection, which may bump them into ahigher risk category. Addinga deli in the convenience store is an example of the kind of change the FoodSafety Program wants to know about.

Sometimes an establishment goes out ofbusiness but hasn’t notified ODA,or the owners have not renewed their foodsafety license. Others may have transitioned into food service, which islicensed by public health and not ODA. Those changes are quickly noted by theannual audit.

Aquick look at recent audit reports proves the value of the collaboration.Weights and measures inspector Steve Eugenio checked in at a store in Dallas tofind that the facility has added a full deli. Thatinformation was passed on tolocal food safety inspector Judy Dowell. In Pleasant Hill, weights and measuresinspector Branden Parker discovered that a a gas station/convenience store hadrecently added a Subwayrestaurant. The news was passed on to food safetyinspector Jeff Green.

It’snot a one-way street. The cross-pollination benefits both programs. Whileweights and measures inspectors do a quick inspection of the foodestablishment’s conditions and that it has the proper food safetylicensing,food safety inspectors checking out the higher risk facilities are making sureany weighing and measuring devices in use have the proper tags that indicatethe devices are registered and have been inspected byODA.

Eventhough businesses are not always thrilled to have government inspectorsknocking at the door, they do like to know that the license fees they pay aregoing for something worthwhile.

“Thebusiness community is getting individual attention for the license fees theypay,” says Harrington. “The food safety inspector can’t inspect a low riskfacility annually but a weights and measures inspectorcomes by every year toperform an evaluation of its measuring equipment and can do the basic audit.The business recognizes that ODA is providing a service for the license fee, nomatter which ODA program providesit.”

“JustChecking In” has broken down some of the silos that have historically existedinside the Oregon Department of Agriculture. More and more, ODA’s staff arelooking for ways to help all agency programs,not just their own.

“Theprocess has helped foster a culture of working together, which I think isextremely positive for ODA,” says Harrington.

ODAwill be looking at additional intra-agency collaboration in the future,wherever possible.

Formore information, contact Frank Barcellos at (503) 986-4724.