Inspections and Food Code Regulations

Public Health and Consumer Expectations:
Ensuring safe food remains an important public health priority in Kansas. It is a shared responsibility of the food industry and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to ensure that food provided to the consumer is safe and does not become the cause of a foodborne illness outbreak. This shared responsibility extends to ensuring that consumers expectations are met by confirming that food service establishments are monitored for compliance with recognized food safety standards and that food is unadulterated, prepared in a clean environment and honestly presented.

Kansas Food Code:
The current Kansas Food Code was adopted from the 1999 FDA Model Code August 13, 1999. It is based on nationally recognized and scientifically sound standards for food safety. The Kansas Food Code is intended to minimize the hazards that can lead to foodborne illness or injury, thus ensuring safe food and optimal levels of sanitation in food service establishments. Accordingly, the provisions of the Food Code provide a system of preventative and overlapping safeguards designed to minimize foodborne illness by addressing the following:

• Safe food handling practices and interventions
• Manager knowledge and responsibilities
• Employee health and hygiene
• Physical facilities, equipment and toxic material
• Acceptable levels of sanitation on food establishment premises
• Compliance and enforcement

There are two categories of code regulations: Critical regulations and Non-Critical (Good Retail Practices).

1. Critical regulations are priority items that are more likely to contribute to a foodborne illness or injury, food contamination or environmental health hazard if not under managerial control. There are 85 critical regulations in the Kansas Food Code.

Examples of critical regulations include:

• Food from unsafe or unapproved source
• Inadequate cooking, cooling or holding temperatures
• Evidence of the presence of pests
• Presence of adulterated food
• Poor employee hygiene such as failure to wash hands
• Contamination of food from hands (bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food)
2. Non-critical regulations (Good Retail Practices) are core items relating to general sanitation and best practices necessary to maintain acceptable sanitation levels. These items are less likely to cause a foodborne illness. However, if left uncontrolled over a period of time, they could contribute to foodborne illness or injury. The Kansas Food Code contains 258 non-critical regulations.

Examples of violations of non-critical regulations or poor practices include:

• Dirty floors
• Inadequate lighting in food preparation or storage areas
• Lack of effective hair restraints
• Open garbage containers
• Dirty hood ventilation equipment
• Lack of thermometers

Compliance Level:
Inspections focus on the level of food safety risk by identifying the compliance level with critical food safety regulations. Substantial compliance with the critical regulations is required. To be in substantial compliance, all critical violations are expected to be corrected while the inspector is present. This is called correction on-site (COS).

In general, if the facility has no more than five critical violations, with all being corrected on site, it is considered to be in substantial compliance. An inspection that indicates substantial compliance is considered to be at an acceptable level of food safety-at this level there is evidence of active managerial control of critical food safety issues. If there is an imminent health hazard, the facility would be required to discontinue operations until the situation is remediated.

If substantial compliance is not achieved, a food safety intervention is implemented (see food safety interventions document). In most cases this involves the issuing of a notice of non-compliance and a re-inspection will be conducted. Food safety interventions, consultations, and educational tools are employed to promote increased food safety within the establishment. In the end, food safety is an ongoing cooperative effort that involves the management of the establishment, food workers, regulators and consumers.