Risk Based Inspections
What are ‘Risk Based Inspections’? Inspections that focus and prioritize five broad categories of “risk factors” that most often contributes to food borne illness.
What are Risk Factors?
They are the conditions, procedures, or practices that result in out-of-control food safety hazards. The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) has identified 5 major risk factors that contribute to foodborne outbreaks.
1. Improper Holding Temperatures
2. Inadequate Cooking
3. Poor personal hygiene
4. Contaminated Equipment
5. Unsafe food sources
Using these 5 risk factors identified by the CDC, Concord Health Department has developed 8
Critical Risk Factors that food inspectors will be focusing on during their inspection.
1. Properly cooked potentially hazardous food
2. Proper holding temperatures potentially hazardous food
3. Proper cooling and reheating of potentially hazardous food
4. Personnel with infections restricted
5. Proper hygiene
6. Cross contamination
7. Wash, rinse and sanitize
8. Food from an approved source
How will Risk Based Inspections change the inspection process in my facility?
Conducting a risk-based inspection requires an inspector to focus on evaluating the degree of active control that an operator has over risk factors. In order to properly assess active managerial control, the inspector will need to spend the majority of their time observing the practices and procedures that are likely to lead to out-of-control risk factors and asking food workers questions to assess a process.
What can I do as a Food establishment to ensure I’m in compliance with the risk factors?
1. Keep an open dialogue with your inspector and ask questions.
2. Get into the habit of continually monitoring all critical risk factors and take corrective action when needed.
3. Identify your high-risk foods and their preparation processes. Ensure processes are in place to prevent cross contamination. Take food temperatures to insure food product temperatures are maintained during production.
4. Stress and practice hand washing for all employees when changing activities.
5. Make certain that employees with symptoms such as diarrhea, fever and vomiting are restricted from food handling.
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