Sutter County considering retail food ordinance

Placarding program designed to provide customers visual indication of a facility’s most recent inspection

Customers frequenting retail food facilities in Sutter County could see new color-coded placards posted in their favorite restaurant over the next year if officials move forward with a proposed ordinance change at today’s meeting.

The food facility placarding program would see color-coded placards – green, yellow and red – posted in restaurants indicating their compliance status from their most recent inspection by the county’s Environmental Health team. The system, if adopted, is designed to minimize the occurrence of the five most critical risk factors for foodborne illness, which include food from unsafe sources; improper cooking temperatures; improper holding temperatures; contaminated utensils and equipment; and poor employee health and hygiene.

“Food

Facility

Placarding

Programs are becoming more common in many jurisdictions and are designed to provide customers with a quick visual indication of the overall results of the food facility’s most recent inspection,” said Development Services Director Neal Hay in a staff report. “Food facilities are already required to have a copy of their most recent inspection report available for customer review upon request.”

After inspection, each retail food facility would receive a placard based on the number of major violations observed. Major violations are food products, handling practices, circumstances, or events most likely to result in food-borne illness. A green pass would indicate there were no more than one major violation at the facility, while a yellow conditional pass indicates that two or more major violations were present during the time of the inspection. Business owners would have three days to address the violations that resulted in a yellow conditional pass in order to receive a green pass placard.

If any major violation is found and is posing an imminent health hazard that cannot be mitigated or corrected during the inspection, a red closed placard would be issued, and a re-inspection would be done within a 24-hour window. If the business owner fails to meet compliance, measures would then be initiated as incentive, including providing the owner with additional information, training and/or reinspection fees.

Defacing or premature removal of a placard by a retail food business may result in suspension or revocation of the facility’s permit-to-operate, and they could face fines.

Food facility operators, as well as the public, are invited

to today’s meeting to provide any comments regarding the proposed

ordinance change. Today’s meeting starts at 3 p.m. and will be held at the Yuba City Council Chambers – 1201 Civic Center Blvd., Yuba City.

If approved, the placarding program will be phased in during each retail food facility’s next inspection.