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March 27, 2019
More than 190 retail food regulators, food safety instructors and food establishment operators from across Minnesota and around the country came together in person and online for the March 13 meeting of the Food Safety Partnership of Minnesota.
Agenda highlights
After several announcements from the membership and a recap of Minnesota food code adoption, we had three content segments which touched on epidemiology, the FDA risk factor study, and interpretations of new requirements in Minnesota food code. The meeting wrapped up with a look at the road forward toward the next rule revision.
Epi Update
Steph Meyer, an epidemiologist with MDH, discussed multiple outbreak scenarios highlighting key benefits of partnership between epidemiology and environmental health.
FDA Risk Factor Study
Participants learned from Greg Abel (FDA) about the positive impact of food safety training, manager certification and active managerial control on reducing key foodborne illness risk factors in retail food settings. Greg reported that state and local agency sanitarians accompanied him on 100 percent of data collections he conducted in Minnesota. This study examined the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors in both fast food and full-service restaurants in 2013 and 2014.
Greg presented results showing that food safety management systems play a major role in compliance. Three key components of food safety management systems are:
- Procedures
- Training
- Monitoring
Restaurants with well-developed food safety management systems had less than half as many risk factors and food safety practices that were out of compliance than restaurants with non-existent food safety management systems.
Average # of out of compliance items at fast food restaurants with non-existent FSMS and well-developed FSMS. Source: FDA Fact Sheet (https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodborneIllnessRiskFactorReduction/UCM625242.pdf)
Average # of out of compliance items at full-service restaurants with non-existent FSMS and well-developed FSMS. Source: FDA Fact Sheet (https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodborneIllnessRiskFactorReduction/UCM625242.pdf)
FDA’s Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors in Fast Food and Full-Service Restaurants 2012-2014 was published in November 2018.
More Major Changes of Concern to Minnesota Food Code
Food safety experts Nicole Baysal (MDA) and Jim Topie (MDH) answered questions about recent updates to the Minnesota food code. Nicole and Jim are both standardized food safety inspection officers who work to advance local, state and national uniformity. Questions they covered touched on duties of the person in charge, employee health, date marking and “use-by” dates, salad bar monitoring, wild mushrooms, juice, highly susceptible populations, time/temperature control for safety food (TCS), noncontinuous cooking, time as public health control (TPHC) and equipment.
Look for more Rules in Brief articles here in the PWDU-FSP Update in the coming months. We will select hot topics from this presentation and delve deeper into:
- What is required?
- How does the rule protect public health?
- How can retail food establishment operators meet the requirements?
In-person and WebEx attendance
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Participants for the FSP meeting numbered 191 food safety enthusiasts, including both in-person attendees (53 percent) and WebEx participants (47 percent).
There were 28 attendees at the host site in St. Paul. Total attendance was 57at MDH district offices (Bemidji, Duluth, Fergus Falls, Mankato, Marshall, and Rochester). Sites in Anoka, Hennepin, Kandiyohi and Washington Counties added 16 more attendees total.
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Continuing education for REHS/RS and CFPM
If you registered for the March 13 FSP using your MN.TRAIN account and selected a credit type, you can now download and print your certificate. Seventeen participants received Minnesota CFPM credit, and 125 received REHS/RS credit.
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