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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Food Service Advisory Committee - 03/04/2003 Minutes FOOD SERVICE ADVISORY COMMITEE March 4,2003 Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District Administration Conference Room Members Present: Robert Ard, Suzanne Gilliam, Gabriel Hernandez,William Schroeder Members Absent: Carlos Moreno, John Denson, Dovie Jordan Staff Present: Larry Jones,Annette Rodriguez,Ardys Boostrom Guest: Dee Haven Gabriel Hernandez called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. The minutes of the February 4, 2003 meeting were approved as written. E&CHP Report:Superior Rating Award: Legal has advised staff that the Superior Rating Award as conceived cannot be given under the current policies,procedures, and ordinances of the City of Corpus Christi. Discussion: A suggestion to do a mail out to all establishments, including the smaller ones so they will know what is going on next year. A cover letter went out last year. Dr. Boostrom stated that budget allocations will affect the number of mail outs each division can have. Director's Report January and February 2003 collecting funds, from restaurant establishments etc. Permit sales down as well as food handler permits. Inspections are also down.- Frozen dessert machines inspected. Complaints are about the same. In January a lot of citations and complaints, but this has fallen off dramatically since. A question was asked about how long is a temporary food service; the answer is no more than 14 days. Presentation by Dee Haven Having just attended a State meeting recently, Mr. Haven shared some of the agenda items. The State has been looking,at a state wide recognition program for those people who have not only completed food manager training but also if 100% of their employees have completed training also, as is required here. Obviously themore we train people, the better the scores are going to be at inspection time. Officials have been working very hard to complete the on-line manager training. It is still not quite ready, working on security issues: However, it has now been approved and the Restaurant Association has a member of the State staff in Chicago right'now getting training, and SCANNED .Y the plan is for that to be up and online on the 15th March. The three step process will be available on the Texas Restaurant Association website. The 1st step will be the trial test, which is a person can go on line and test themselves to discover if they are ready to take the test, or if they need the training. While taking the test, if you cannot answer a question you will be disconnected. This process is to provide a means to take the test 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The whole process takes about 1-1/2 hours. This is the latest news from the State. You can pay by credit card. Over 20 years ago the Coastal Bend chapter of the Restaurant association was the first in Texas to place a member of the Environmental Health Department on their local board, to enhance communication between the two. It was not too long after that, about 15 years ago that this committee was formed, the first such committee to be formed in Texas. This was the first city to have a food advisory committee at the health department, where restaurant operators and people from at large in the community get together with issues and to provide assistance in communication. The fact is there are only a handful of cities in the State of Texas that have committees like this one. The best thing to come out of this is an atmosphere of cooperation between the health department and restaurant operators and other food service operators in terms of working together to improve food handling practices and create a safer environment for people to eat. The food service inspectors are not only enforcement operators but educators as well. The schools in Corpus Christi are indicative of the quality of safe food handling and are a credit to those people who run those schools. Discussion A question has been asked how this committee came in to being. The response was that Dr. Merzger started the process. It was felt at that time that this committee with the restaurateurs, and the general public would assist in the whole aspect of food service. Because of this good communication the restaurant association has always been supportive of any changes recommended to the City Council. Old Business: None New Business: None Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held May 6, 2003 at 2:00p.m. in the Administration Conference Room at the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District, 1702 Home Road. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 2:36 p.m.