Coeur D'Alene Tribe Retail Food Standards Project

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe's Retail Food Safety Project's main goal is to improve the health, safety and welfare of residents and visitors of the Coeur d'Alene Reservation. This project will improve retail food safety through working toward being verified for conformance with at least 4 of the 9 Food & Drug Administration's Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards by the end of the five-year project period. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe has approximately 20 retail food establishments on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation. These retail food establishments include food programs for children, seniors, the general public and thousands of visitors annually to the Reservation. The Tribe has had an Environmental Health Specialist in the Tribe's Environmental Programs Office of the Natural Resource Department since 1998. The Tribe's food safety program utilizes the current FDA food code as an advisory document for its compliance assistance, education and outreach to Tribal retail food establishments. One main question that the project seeks to answer is whether the Coeur d'Alene Tribe would like to develop and approve a food code that is consistent with the current FDA food code. Once that question is answered, the Tribe will determine if it will be able to pursue verification for conformance with the remaining 5 Program Standards. Another goal of this grant is to determine the feasibility of developing a memorandum of agreement with the state of Idaho's Panhandle Health District for areas such as foodborne illness and food defense preparedness and response, in addition to other aspects of a retail food program. If it is feasible in terms of adequate support from the Tribe and Panhandle Health, as well as from a programmatic perspective, then the Tribe proposes completing a MOA during the project period. The Tribe does not currently have sufficient funding for staff to pursue its retail food safety goals to the degree outlined above. Through providing funds for adequate staff time to pursue these goals, the Tribe will be able to better protect public health through increased retail food safety on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation.