California Retail Food Code
The California Retail Food Code signed into law on May 15, 2006, becomes effective tomorrow. Under this new legislation, inspections of retail food establishments will focus on CDC-identified foodborne illness risk factors, including the following:
- Food from Unsafe Sources
- Inadequate Cooking
- Improper Holding Temperatures
- Contaminated Equipment
- Poor Personal Hygiene
- The public health interventions are:
- Demonstration of Knowledge
- Employee Health
- Time/Temperature Control
- Hands as a Vehicle of Contamination
Changes and new requirements that address these risk factors include the following:
- All food employees are required to have adequate knowledge in food safety as it relates to their assigned duties
- All food employees are required to have knowledge regarding the relationship between personal hygiene and food safety and food employee health.
- Reportable Illnesses have been expanded to include the following:
- Salmonella typhi and Salmonella spp.
- Hepatitis A virus
- Shigella spp.
- E coli (Enterohemorragic or shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli)
- Norovirus
- Entamoeba histolytica
- Employees must report to the Person In Charge (PIC) if they have been diagnosed with one of the reportable illnesses or if they have a lesion or wound that is open or draining and comply with restrictions and exclusions.
- PIC must report to the local enforcement agency if a food employee has been diagnosed with a reportable illness or if they have knowledge that two or more food employees are experiencing symptoms of an acute gastrointestinal illness.
- PIC must exclude a food employee if diagnosed with a reportable illness or restrict a food employee if suffering from symptoms of an acute gastrointestinal illness. Exclude means to prevent a person from working as a food employee or entering a food facility except for those areas open to the general public. Exclusions can only be removed by the local health officer/enforcement agency.
- PIC must restrict a food employee if they are experiencing persistent coughing or sneezing. Restrict means to limit the activities of a food employee so that there is no risk of transmitting a disease that is transmissible through food and the food employee does not work with exposed food, clean equipment, utensils, linen and unwrapped single-use articles.
- PIC is required to ensure that lesions or open wounds on food employees are protected.
The above lists of risk factors and changes and new requirements are from, “California Retail Food Code – Summary of Major Changes,” a publication of the California Retail Safety Coalition.
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