Revitalization of the DEHS Assessment Program

Program Assessment of the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards It is the intent of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability to use this opportunity to revitalize the assessment program to be in harmony with Standard 9, Program Assessment, create a sustainable program that will result in local retail food programs being trained in the standards and assessment program, and conduct assessments of over thirty local retail food programs throughout the state. Our goal is to ensure that Division staff working within the assessment program is well trained, knowledgeable and will consistently and uniformly apply that knowledge to the future assessments to be conducted with local regulatory programs. To date we have used the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS) as the standard to evaluate the various aspects of our program and have identified gaps with the standards that have not been met. We are moving forward with formulating an action plan to address these gaps and strengthen and improve our program. Establishing a solid program foundation will help improve the program now, provide guidance for the future, and promote a program that will be a model for other Colorado local retail food inspection programs. The goal is to have the work conducted by all of Colorado's retail food inspection programs be recognized for their quality and consistency related to inspections, sound program practices, and targeted efforts in reducing the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors. This will assist the state in meeting its Winnable Battle of Safe Food geared at providing safe food to Colorado residents and guests. The agency is committed to help achieve FDA's goal of an integrated food safety system and ensure that Colorado's inspections, investigations, assessments and program initiatives are recognized as model programs nationwide.