Earlier this year, the Monongalia County Health Department (WV) presented to their Board of Health regarding the importance of implementing risk-based inspections for retail food establishments which “will take the health department from counting garbage can lids to actually addressing risks within local food establishments.” NACCHO is thrilled to report that the county got the green light to make the change effective this summer.
The County had previously participated in NACCHO-managed Mentorship program, now operational under the NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model Grant Program. The department touts the knowledge and support they received under the mentorship as being key to their efforts to research, plan, and advocate for this monumental change to their food safety system.
Read more about it in the Dominion Post.
Looking to make a similar change in your local jurisdiction? Here’s what you can do:
- Consider planning for the next round of applications to join NACCHO’s mentorship cohort at https://www.neha.org/retail-grants.
- Learn more about it!
- To aid the expansion of state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) regulatory programs using risk-based inspections (RBIs) to advance smarter food safety, NACCHO and CFP conducted a study in 2021 to identify, better understand, and assess the application of RBI methods currently employed by local retail food regulatory programs while seeking to identify the overarching barriers preventing application of RBI methods. View the report | View the infographic for local health departments.
- NACCHO’s Analysis of Factors Impacting the Implementation of Effective Intervention Strategies identified and assessed the implementation of risk factor interventions currently employed by local retail food regulatory programs enrolled in the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (Retail Program Standards), with a focus on Standard 9.
