Inspectors Unveil Plan for Self-Policing by Restaurants

Thermometers and pencils may become as important as spatulas and frying pans in Ventura County eating establishments if health officials have their way.

An old concept rejuvenated as the latest approach to food safety was unveiled by health inspectors at a meeting of food service professionals Thursday.

Under the new program, initiated by the federal government after tainted hamburgers killed four people and made hundreds of others ill in 1993, local restaurants and cafeterias would voluntarily operate on an honor system designed to keep food bacteria-free. Self-policing of cooking temperatures, storage methods and food handling would become as routine as taste tests and seasoning.

While county officials heralded the new program as a way for eating establishments to save both lives and the enormous expenses associated with food poisoning cases, a consumer watchdog group expressed concern that it not be considered a replacement for old-fashioned white glove inspections.

Known as HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, the system was invented in the 1960s as a means to keep astronauts in space safe from the agonies--and mess--of food-borne illnesses.

Using the new system, restaurant managers would identify specific points where contamination could occur and then keep daily tabs on those critical spots. These could include dipping a thermometer into cooking meat to make sure that it is achieving the proper temperature, or measuring the heat in a pot of simmering chowder. If the temperature isn’t right, the cook has to be ready to toss the whole pot, Ventura County Health Inspector Doris Miller said.

“If you are dumping 50 pounds of clam chowder, that could be a sad moment,” she said. “But what about the people who could get sick on it?”

Daily logs of these checks would be kept for at least 90 days and shown regularly to inspectors, who would visit eating establishments twice a year.

After the Jack-in-the-Box incident in 1993, where several children died in Washington state after eating meat patties contaminated by the E. coli bacteria, the federal government took another look at the HACCP concept. A January updating of California food codes includes the self-policing requirements for the first time.

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Ventura County officials invited 160 food service groups to a session Thursday to describe the HACCP method--targeting caterers, hospital and school district cafeterias, banquet operators, nursing homes and some local restaurant chains. All are considered high-risk groups for food contamination problems. About 50 people turned up for the two-hour session.

“The movement in food safety is toward mandatory HACCP and for good reason,” said Miller, who will head the effort.

But experts in food safety warned Thursday that compliance with HACCP should not replace routine surprise inspections. Furthermore, participation in the program should extend beyond just the restaurants to their food suppliers in order to be truly effective.

“HACCP systems have the potential to be wonderful,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D. C. “But it’s not a stand-alone system.”

County officials said they can’t control food suppliers, who are outside their regulatory controls. But they said inspections won’t stop just because a food service organization begins using the new system.

“If you were looking at HACCP as a way of getting rid of us, too bad,” Miller told the group.

Concern over food safety heightened after the Jack-in-the-Box incident, but county officials said the numbers of food-related illness continue to climb, despite the new awareness.

In 1990, 29 people called Ventura County to report illnesses after eating out. In 1995, that number climbed to 189. During that time, the number of permitted eating establishments in the county only increased about 16%.

A single case of food poisoning could cost a restaurant $73,000 in hospital and attorney fees, Miller said, citing figures from the Centers for Disease Control. And she warned that hamburger joints, oyster bars and salad bars aren’t the only establishments that have to worry.

“Whatever you are fixing, even if you are just serving water in a cup, you are still at risk,” Miller said.

Miller said 10,000 people a year nationally die from food-borne illnesses.

She had some help selling the idea from a top manager with Jack-in-the-Box, a company that credits HACCP with saving it from financial ruin.

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“Who better to tell you about the merits of HACCP than someone who has been through the worst food safety nightmare,” said Lisa Wright, manager of regulatory affairs for Foodmaker, the owner of the hamburger chain.

For the last four sales quarters, Foodmaker has shown a profit, she said, only two years after seeing sales drop by 25% practically overnight.

“You have to walk and talk HACCP every single day,” Wright said.