Five years ago, a national survey found that Oregon‘s Food Security Program was lagging far behind in the assessment, potentially putting public health at risk.
The researchers found that, as of October 2016, 2,84, or one-fourth, of 12,000 grocery stores, food processing and other licenses were delayed three months or more for review.
“The issues are high,” the researchers wrote. “The safety of the food system affects everyone in Oregon.”
By May 2022, that number had grown to 4,282, or about 35 percent, after hitting a high of 4,945 in September 2021.
It is despite the fact that, in 2018, this system lowered the required frequency monitoring for some firms that set a low risk.
Officials at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, say the increase in surveys does not affect public health.
They blame increasing staffing, the growing complexity of the food industry, and the delay in screening caused by the epidemic.
“While ODA takes a very backward approach and is working to reduce the number, backlash does not pose a health risk to the public but represents a reduction in focus,” ODA communications director Andrea Cantu-Schomus said.
Ensuring safe food
ODA’s Food Safety Program licenses and inspects nearly 11,000 food-related facilities, including grocery stores, scrambled eggs, dairies, bakeries, shellfish and seafood holders, food warehouses, lockers, meat, milk and beverage processors, and home kitchens. Read also : Local nonprofits team up to give away free food. rezinesi.
Its function is to prevent foodborne illness by checking whether these organizations are compliant with consumer safety measures, such as keeping food at the right temperature, keeping food out of the shelves, making sure employees wash their hands, and protecting products from pests. rats and cockroaches.
The program does not cover restaurants or school restaurants. These are overseen by the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Education, which provide services to regional health departments.
The Statesman Journal began reporting problems in the Food Security Program in a December 2014 report on the government’s failure to regularly inspect grocery stores.
U.S. The Food and Drug Administration recommends that grocery stores be inspected every six months. But the Statesman Journal found that 55 percent of Oregon’s grocery stores had not been audited for a year, and 5 percent had not been audited for three years or more.
In 2014, when the Statesman Journal requested inspection reports from 29 major stores in Salem and Keizer, more than half had been audited for more than a year. Six had spent more than two years untested and one untested in three years.
Within four days before releasing the records, the country quickly inspected seven local stores that were over-the-counter.
They found a total of 90 violations, including the 50 listed in the “first” or “beginning” section, all related to an eating disorder.
Violations included activities that carried out at extreme temperatures; raw chicken broth sprinkling cooking utensils and packaged food; deli slicers were sprayed with sanitizer but not washed; meat and cheese being sold days ago; unhealthy cold foods such as taco meat; abundant flies in the production area; and the butcher shop was cleaned once a day, instead of between different types of food.
In response to an article in the Statesman Journal, the Secretary of State’s Audits Division began its investigation, which included food storage licenses, not just for commercial purposes. It found that the analysis methods were inconsistent.
“Adherence to food safety regulations is essential to reduce the risk of contamination,” the researchers wrote. “It is up to the food security inspectors to ensure that the rules are followed.”
Growing backlog
By 2019, the Food Security Program had backtracked to more than 900 previous surveys. On the same subject : Scientists created a sprayed wrapper that could reduce food waste.
But even before the plague struck, numbers had begun to rise.
“This program has full staff, however, there is a long history of staff training,” program director Rusty Rock told ODA’s Food Safety Committee in January 2020. it includes most of the regular staff of the program, posing a challenge for researchers. “
As CCIDID-19 restrictions were imposed, the number of long-term studies increased significantly, officials said.
From March 2020 to August 2021, surveys were pre-arranged by businesses. And CCIDID-19 risk assessment was performed prior to each study.
“The safety and well-being of our workers, our communities and food workers was paramount during the epidemic,” Cantu-Schomus said.
Meanwhile, researchers have spent most of their time leading the development of both a food safety book and a farm playbook to guide food producers and processors to protect workers and the community from COVID and constant running.
Although ODA CCIDID bans have been lifted for more than a decade, the program is still plagued by staffing problems.
“Finding qualified people to fill these positions is an ongoing challenge as the job market remains complex,” Cantu-Schomus said. “During the ODA epidemic food security lost 10 percent of its operations to normalcy and the department deliberately occupied unsafe storage positions and training-related problems.”
The food security program has been plagued by staff shortages for nearly a decade but the market is very tight right now. The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, temporarily closed 12 offices because it did not have enough staff.
The plan does not have the time to downgrade or target a number of backlogs, but it does focus on the evaluation of buildings that are at high risk and that are extremely slow, Cantu-Schomus said.
Inspection frequency increased
Oregon has adopted a majority of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code, which requires restaurants to be inspected once every six months. This may interest you : Equitable Food Initiative nominates two new board members – Produce Blue Book.
The code allows buildings to be screened frequently in the presence of a written, risk-oriented system that is used uniformly throughout the state.
In Oregon, 20% of food companies are at high risk, meaning they are tested once a year.
About 36% of firms are classified as intermediate risk and are evaluated at least every two years.
And 44% are considered low risk and are evaluated at least every three years.
Buildings are divided according to the type of food they produce or sell and the size of the business, as well as whether they have recently recalled, complaints or forced actions.
Within the sections, however, analysts use their judgment to see actual performance.
This means that medium-sized firms can be tested every 13 months or 24 months. A high-risk company can be evaluated every 25 months or 36 months.
For example, Natural Grocers in Tigard is inspected every 13 months, while Natural Grocers in Beaverton is inspected every 30 months.
And that Pope Murphy in Prineville is examined every 12 months, while Pope Murphy in Hermiston is examined every 36 months.
The different frequencies were not calculated in the risk matrix.
More facilities licensed
The national office has violated the ODA by not having a system in place to ensure that food processors are licensed.
In May 2019, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2060, allowing the country to ban unlicensed food workers.
ODA had seen more than 600 food-related sites operate without permission, but had no power to enforce them. And officials estimated that they were losing $ 130,000 a year in unpaid license fees.
The implementation of the provisions of the bill was suspended in the event of the plague, but the rules expired in June 2021.
ODA can now shut down firms that refuse to obtain food security contracts or make them obsolete. Owners receive 30 days’ notice prior to obtaining a closing permit. They could be fined up to $ 10,000 for non-compliance.
Currently, no companies have been shut down or fined, Cantu-Schomus said. At the same time, the threat of government crackdowns forced about five hundred and fifty of these firms to be licensed, he said.
Tracy Loew is a reporter for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew.
