A baseline assessment of U.S. Naval food facilities using the Food Code's new risk-based inspection program.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed a new method for assessing food safety in retail establishments using a risk factor-based approach for prevention of foodborne illness. The study reported here surveyed facilities in the Navy's San Diego jurisdiction (11 fast-food and 22 full-service facilities) to establish a baseline rate of compliance with FDA risk factor categories. The Navy facility baseline-data compliance rate was compared with FDA baseline data from 1998. Fast-food facilities were less in compliance than they were in the FDA baseline data (59 percent versus 74 percent were in compliance), while full-service establishments were more in compliance than they were in the FDA baseline (73 percent versus 60 percent). The fact that compliance was greater among Navy facility full-service establishments than in the FDA national baseline may be partly due to staffing by military active-duty employees who receive incentives that may encourage compliance. The establishment of this Navy baseline allows comparison with the FDA baseline. Interventions can now be quantified.
Boyd
Derek
D
Naval Health Clinic, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21403-5050, USA. derek.boyd@med.navy.mil
D005506:Food Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control; D005513:Food Inspection / Q000592:standards*; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D012147:Restaurants / Q000592:standards; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration / Q000592:standards