Hybrid Enforcement-consultation Retail Food Safety Consultation Service: Using A Hybrid Enforcement-consultation Approach and Food Protection Manager Trainings to Augment Amcs in Local Establishments.

Project Summary/AbstractThe Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) Food Safety Program'sprimary goal is preventing foodborne illness through a comprehensive program basedon the 2009 FDA Food Code and on FDA's Retail Program Standards. LLCHD retailfood inspection trend data revealed that violations of key risk factors for foodborneillness had stabilized and a subset of establishments continued to have significantlyhigher numbers of Critical Item Violations (or Priority and Priority Foundation). Whilemany regulatory programs have worked with retail food industry to implement ActiveManagerial Controls (AMC), success has been limited. The goal of LLCHD's proposal is to reduce foodborne illness originating fromretail food establishments and the outcome will be fewer illnesses, hospitalizations anddeaths. LLCHD's objective is to strengthen AMCs at the retail level throughimplementing an innovative two-part approach to the Retail Food Safety ConsultationProgram to reduce Key Risk Factor violations among high-risk establishments. Part 1 would begin by reviewing and revising the current LLCHD FoodEstablishment Enforcement Strategy to incorporate the Retail Food Safety Consultationservices. LLCHD would then implement the new hybrid approach to progressiveenforcement-consultation with a goal of achieving higher levels of AMC compliance. Part 2 will focus on training food managers in the areas of Special FoodProcesses by developing and offering a series of trainings for food managers, which willbe video recorded and available online as a resource to the retail food community.LLCHD will create a Special Food Processes Certificate for managers that completeeach training and demonstrate the corresponding AMCs. This proposal provides a unique opportunity for FDA to test an innovative hybridenforcement-consultation approach to reducing Risk Factor Violations and AMCs thathas had limited application in retail food regulatory programs. If successful, this modelwill change the field of practice and provide new strategies to achieve a higher level ofretail food safety across the U.S., reducing foodborne illness.