A food safety inspection boot camp was held on Monday by Northern Nevada Public Health.
The boot camp offered food establishment operators the tools and resources they need to inspect their own establishments as if they were an NNPH food inspector.
Olivia Alexander-Leeder, Senior Registered Environmental Health Specialist says they host the boot camp "So they feel confident and knowledgeable about food safety when we come out to do their inspection, and it helps them to keep their food safe for the community and for the public. We always want to make sure we're giving them information and education as it relates to that."
During the boot camp there was a mock inspection, and people had the chance to observe common food safety violations. The participants used their own inspection checklist so they could learn what to look out for in their own establishments.
"A big goal of all of the education we provide is connecting information to practice so that we're not just talking at people," said Alexander-Leeder. "We want to make sure that we're giving them the information that they need and examples of that information that are relevant to their day-to-day activities in their food establishments."
NNPH says some of the information they provide can be really technical, so it's easier to show participants what they're talking about during these mock inspections.
"Any outreach program we provide always talks about food safety practices and the practices that need to be put in place to make sure that food is safe for the consumer," said Alexander-Leeder. "But today's focus was primarily just providing information about what happens during an inspection; it's the same inspection we give to our new inspectors when they're first hired."
During an inspection, you receive a passing score when you get less than three critical violations. A critical violation poses an imminent health threat to the public.
A conditional pass is three to five critical violations, and a fail is six or more.
A facility's permit is suspended when they have any one critical violation that can't be corrected while the inspectors are on site.
"There is room for error," said Alexander-Leeder. "People will make mistakes, and we're all human in that respect. What's important is to make sure those mistakes are prevented so we prevent the health threat and then also make sure that they get properly corrected so that consumers in our community can stay healthy and happy after they go out to eat."
Risk category one is a low-risk establishment, such as a bar or a coffee shop. They get inspected once a year. The same goes for the medium-risk category two. High-risk establishments, like full-service restaurants, get inspected twice a year.
They offer this boot camp on a quarterly basis. The next food safety boot camp is going to be in August and then again in October.
You can also check out the NNPH food safety services page by clicking the link here.
