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United
States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service Office of Policy, Program Development and Evaluation |
Federal, State and Local Government Relations Staff Home Page |
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FY 2001 FSIS Support for State Retail Food Safety Task Forces
Participating States
(To jump quickly to a particular State, please click on the following State abbreviations.)
AZ | CA | GA | IL | MN | NE | NY | VA
Arizona |
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Agency |
Arizona Department of Agriculture |
| Key Contact | Dart A. Easterday Administrator, Dairy/Egg and Meat and Poultry Programs (602) 542-0869 (602) 542-4194 (FAX) |
| Description of expected activities | The funds will be used in conjunction with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration's grant to establish the Arizona Food Safety Task Force. The task force will develop projects that will focus on the retail food service area. |
California |
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Reports |
July 2002 Update |
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Agency |
California Department of Health Services |
| Key Contact | James M. Waddell Chief, Food Safety Section (916) 324-3990 jwaddell@dhs.ca.gov |
| Description of expected activities | Will develop a plan under its existing FDA-sponsored California Food Safety Task Force to address meat safety at retail (markets and restaurants.) The plan will address 1) development of training materials and brochures regarding meat safety at retail, 2) training of local health department staff who are the primary regulatory resources to inspect retail food facilities in California, and 3) training of managers and employees of retail markets and restaurants to alert them to the hazards associated with chemical, physical, and microbiological contamination of meat. |
Georgia |
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Reports |
February 2002 update | ||||||||||||
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Agency |
Georgia Department of Agriculture |
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| Key Contact | Cameron Smoak (404) 656-3600 csmoak@agr.state.ga.us |
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| Description of expected activities |
The Georgia Food Safety Task Force will use the funding to complete the following projects:
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Illinois |
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Reports |
May 2002 Update Year 2002-2003 Tentative Plan Proposal |
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Agency |
Illinois Department of Public Health |
| Key Contact | Dr. Francis Okino Chief, Division of Foods, Drugs, and Dairies (217) 785-2439 fokino@idph.state.il.us |
| Description of expected activities | The Illinois Food Safety Task Force will select the most important area of food safety concern, develop training materials, and undertake a field project. The field project will involve selecting 30 retail food establishments from all over the state with the help of local health departments involvement in the training project. Each selected establishment will be visited at least 3 times by one member of the task force along with a representative from the local health department. The first visit will identify training needs, the second visit will provide 2 to 3 hours of training to the manager/supervisor. The third visit will evaluate the success of the training. An evaluation of the project and a final report will be prepared. As a result of the effort, the Food Safety Task force will make changes, if warranted, in inspection procedures, training development, and training methods based upon the project results and feed back. This is intended to be a renewable project. |
Minnesota |
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Reports |
December 2001 Update |
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Agency |
Minnesota Department of Agriculture |
| Key Contact | Ms. Shirley Bohm (651) 296-1590 shirley.bohm@state.mn.us |
| Description of expected activities | Adoption of FDA’s Food Code in August 1998 created
HACCP requirements in retail stores and food services for meat and
poultry processing and handling, such as curing, vacuum packaging and
cook-chill operations. Audits of these HACCP plans revealed a serious
lack of understanding of the hazards involved, controls available,
the need for monitoring and record keeping, and other HACCP-related
requirements. Standardization of state and local retail food
inspectors using FDA’s HACCP-based protocol also revealed a lack of
familiarity and understanding of retail meat and poultry processes
and HACCP principles associated with them. This was compounded by the
delegation of retail store food inspection to a number of local
health agencies that are not completely familiar with all aspects of
retail meat and poultry processing.
This project will benefit both the retail food industry as well as regulatory agencies inspecting these facilities by giving a pictorial representation of each process then identifying the specific hazards, critical control points, critical limits, monitoring and other necessary facets of a HACCP approach to meat and poultry processing. This training effort presupposes a basic or limited knowledge of HACCP principles by the trainees. This information will be available over the Internet. Short-Term Objectives are to use the members of the Minnesota Food Safety Task Force to develop individual training modules on six different aspects of meat and poultry processing. The six modules are: grinding at retail, curing and sausage making, vacuum packaging, cook-chill operations, sandwich making, and sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOP). The project is expected to be expanded in future years to other modules, such as labeling and smoking. |
Nebraska |
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Reports |
April 2002 Update |
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Agency |
Nebraska Department of Agriculture |
| Key Contact | Mr. George Hanssen (402) 471-2536 georgehh@agr.state.ne.us |
| Description of expected activities | The Nebraska Food Safety Task Force has met and
determined that the food safety educational program should be
targeted to Nebraska retail grocers. Grocery store managers and
managers of specific departments such as meat/poultry, dairy,
produce, bakery and deli would be the target audience of the FMI food
safety certification course. The Nebraska Retail Grocers Association
Board of Directors has also set food safety education as one of their
priorities.
The University of Nebraska Extension specialist will be certified as an instructor for the Food Protection Certification Program provided by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). Teaching materials for the workshop will be developed to enhance the FMI course materials. Promotion of the educational program will be done at the Annual Meeting of the Nebraska Retail Grocers Association. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture maintains a list of all licensed retail food operations in Nebraska. This list will be used to promote the workshops. The FMI Food Safety course is a certification course with an examination at the end of the workshop. The pass/fail rate for the certification examination also provides a method to monitor progress. |
New York |
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Agency |
Division of Food Safety
& Inspection |
| Key Contact | Mr. Alfred E. Bugenhagen (518) 457-5382 alfred.bugenhagen@agmkt.state.ny.us |
| Description of expected activities | Most large retail store chains have the financial ability to employ a corporate sanitarian to educate and train employees on food safety practices and how to monitor an effective sanitation program. Small, individually-owned retail food outlets and distributors normally do not have the ability to employ such an individual. This project will provide a source of food safety training, specifically the five risk factors and the five intervention factors, for individuals from the small retail food firms. Input and participation will be from the New York State Association of Convenience Stores and the Food Industry Alliance of New York State. An indirect result of this project can be the establishment of a contact list for use by industry and regulatory agencies in the event of an emergency. A series of presentations with handouts is planned. |
Virginia |
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Reports |
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Agency |
Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services |
| Key Contact | Mr. Ryan Davis (804) 786-3520 rdavis@vdacs.state.va.us |
| Description of expected activities | Recently, the Commonwealth has experienced a
significant increase in the number, complexity and diversity of
establishments that store, process, or offer meat and poultry
products for sale to the statewide community. The sheer volume
of establishments to be monitored and inspected relegates Food Safety
Specialists and Sanitarians to inspections that are both expedited
and infrequent. Simultaneously, the Commonwealth has experienced a
significant increase in the number, complexity and diversity of
establishments that store, process, or offer meat and poultry
products for sale to the statewide community. Because of the
significant time periods between inspections as well as the rapid
turnover in the food industry, the effectiveness of educational
efforts during inspections is diminished. Additionally, the
proliferation of non-English speaking employees in the food industry,
the emergence of significant ethnic food establishments and unique
food processes has further hampered efforts to communicate effective
food safety principles during visits to those establishments.
Furthermore, because of the resource challenges, efforts to educate
consumers regarding food safety principles has been minimal. It has
become readily apparent that innovative and more effective and
efficient approaches need to be developed to educate the food
industry as well as consumers. Lastly, Food Safety Specialists,
Sanitarians, and the food industry need additional training with
respect to current food safety concerns, as well as training relative
to the utilization of efficient and effective processes to
disseminate food safety educational information.
Long-term objective of the Virginia Food Safety Task Force -- To develop effective educational tools targeted to both the food industry as well as the consumer. These approaches will consist of the design and development of educational brochures, placards and informational "magnets" in a multi-lingual format. This information will be distributed to the food industry and the consumer primarily by state and local food inspectors as well as by university affiliated extension agents. Additionally, ongoing seminars and other educational opportunities will be developed. |
