To insure compliance with State and Local Laws, the Food Protection Staff inspects each facility on a frequency based on a risk analysis of the establishment, the type of menu offered for sale and the type of population served.
Risk analysis criteria are as follows:
- Low Risk: Pre-packaged non-potentially hazardous foods (milk, ice cream, lunch meat)
- Medium Risk: Limited menu, raw ingredients that require minimal assembly. Preparation processes requiring cooking, cooling, reheating, are limited to minimal amounts of potentially hazardous food (fast food operations, schools, chain restaurants, grocery stores)
- High Risk: Extensive handling of raw ingredients, a variety of process that require hot and cold holding of potentially hazardous foods, as well as advanced preparation for next day services (buffets, extensive menus)
Critical violations are defined as those that are likely to directly contribute to a foodborne disease.
Non-critical violations are those that have contributing factors but are generally not the primary cause of an outbreak. The most common and most dangerous critical violations are various degrees of temperature abuse. Potentially hazardous foods must be kept at or above 135º F or at or below 41º F. Failure to do so, or failure to cook food to the proper temperature or cool cooked food quickly (within 6 hours) to below 41ºF, is the leading cause of foodborne illness.