WELCOME TO PENNSYLVANIA AGRICULTURE & FOOD SAFETY

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WELCOME TO PENNSYLVANIAAGRICULTURE FOOD SAFETY

• THE PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE
• Bureau of Food Safety Laboratory
• Food Program Manager
• Sheri Morris

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Pennsylvania Agriculture

• Our Role
• The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
  encourages, protects and promotes agriculture and
  related industries throughout the commonwealth
  while providing consumer protection through
  inspection services that impact the health and
  financial security of Pennsylvania's citizens.
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Pennsylvania Agriculture

• In total, production agriculture and agribusiness
  contributes nearly 45 billion to Pennsylvanias
  economy and provides 400,000 jobs.

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Pennsylvania Agriculture

• Pennsylvania is known as the "Snack Food Capital
  of the World."  with major producers of pretzels,
  potato chips, confectioneries, and chocolate.
• When it comes to food processing, Pennsylvania's
  3,200 food-processing companies are number one
  among the 50 United States in the value of
  shipments of canned fruit and vegetable specialty
  products, chocolate and cocoa products, potato
  chips and pretzels. 
• Pennsylvania leads the United States in mushroom
  production, with an annual production of more
  than 425 million pounds, valuing more than 330.7
  million per year. 
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• The dairy industry in Pennsylvania produces in
  three main categories and is one of the fastest
  growing food sectors in the Commonwealth 
• ice cream and frozen desserts
• butter and cheese
• and fluid milk products
• Pennsylvania's meat, poultry, and fish products
  generate more than 4.3 billion in sales
  annually. 
• Pennsylvania's cattle serve as prime breeding
  stock for several countries. 
• As third largest egg producing state,
  Pennsylvania has taken the lead in egg safety
  through the Pennsylvania Egg Quality Assurance
  Program (PEQAP) which USDA modeled for national
  regulations.
• Pennsylvania is also the international
  headquarters for Hershey Foods Corporation and H.
  J. Heinz.

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Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

• Bureau of Food Safety Laboratories
• Bureau Programs
• Certificates of Free Sale
• Eggs, Fruits and Vegetables
• Fair and/or Temporary Food Concessions
• Food Employee Certification
• Frozen Dessert
• Maple Products Program
• Milk Sanitation Program
• PEQAP - PA Egg Quality Assurance Program
• Restaurant / Retail Food Facilities
• Seafood Program
• Shellfish, Intra and Interstate
• Wholesale / Manufacturing / Processing Food
  Establishments
• Food Safety Laboratory Division
• Food Safety Inspection Results
• Farm Labor Camps

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BUREAU OF FOOD SAFETY LABORATORY SERVICES

• 28,000 retail food facilities
• 3,200 food processors
• 2,200 warehouses
• 400 dairy processing facilities
• 2,800 schools
• 400 organized camps
• 300 summer food service sites for children
• Federal/State Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)
  and Good Handling Practices (GHP) Audit
  Verification Programs for fresh fruits and
  vegetables.

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BUREAU OF FOOD SAFETY LABORATORY SERVICES

• Retail Food Facility Food Establishment
  Inspections
• Our inspectors use a web based, real time
  inspection report system. The field-based
  inspectors have the ability to enter inspection
  reports to the department and the public can view
  the actual retail inspection reports on the PDA
  website
• www.agriculture.state.pa.us/pafoodsafety
• PDA completed 38,411 Retail Food Facility
  Inspections in 2008
• PDA completed 3038 Wholesale Food Establishment
  Inspection in 2008.
• Contracted with the FDA for completing wholesale
  food inspections.
• Contracted with the USDA to complete COOL
  (Country of Origin Labeling) audits at retail

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BUREAU OF FOOD SAFETY LABORATORY SERVICES

• Continued integration of a statewide database for
  retail food facilities, uniform inspection and
  public inspection result posting of retail food
  facility inspections, by incorporating local and
  county health departments into the statewide
  Digital Health Department program.
• Currently we have 45 of the 175 local health
  departments and 2 of the 6 county health
  departments who are actively inspecting in the
  state system, with 6 locals awaiting training ,
  and 13 locals and 1 county pursuing signed
  agreements with their governing jurisdictional
  authorities.

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RISK BASED INSPECTIONS

• Inspection report Items 1-27 are highest risk.
  28-54 are Good Retail Practices
• Inspection Report can be found at
  http//www.foodprotect.org/guides/

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MOST COMMON VIOLATIONS

• Person in Charge is not knowledgeable.
• Eating / Drinking (open cups) in food prep areas
• No Handwashing when required
• Bare Hand Contact with ready to eat food
• Cooling and Reheating temperatures
• Hot Holding Temperature
• Dirty Ice machines
• Improper Sanitizing of food equipment

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BUREAU OF FOOD SAFETY LABORATORY SERVICES

• Newest Issues for retail food facilities
• New Legislation
• Resultant changes in regulations
• Changes to Food Employee Certification
• Upcoming Food Code Changes
• Large Number of Recalls
• Emergency Preparedness

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New Food Safety Legislation

• House Bill 174
• Creates Chapter 57
• Subchapter A Retail Food Facility Act
• Subchapter B Food Safety Act
• Amends Chapter 65 Food Employee Certification
• Can find Bill at www.legis.state.pa.us
• Search for Bill enter - HB174

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New Food Safety Legislation

• Highlights
• Creates distinction between retail wholesale.
• Establishes minimum regulations even with local
  county
• Allows licensing periods based on risk
• Establishes reinspection fees
• Eliminates DJ penalties and allows civil
  penalties
• Mandate to model regulations after the FDA Food
  Code
• Locals / Counties must report inspection results
• FEC exemptions remain, but FEC is tied to Food
  Code Person in Charge.
• FEC program is the ANSI-CFP accredited programs
  and the stae certificated is abolished.
• All persons in charge are certified (not one per
  facility) unless exempt.
• ALL OF THIS WILL REQUIRE CHANGES TO REGULATIONS

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FOOD CODE

• New FDA 2009 Food Code will be published in July.
• Changes expected
• Keeping PHF / TCS for one more Code version
  education materials published
• Time in Lieu of Temperature for 6 hours if kept
  less than 70 degrees F
• Cut Leafy Greens as Potentially Hazardous Food
• Requirements for partial cooking of foods
• No undercooked ground beef on childrens menus
• Three tiers of violations. Priority, Priority
  Foundation, Core

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RECALLS
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LARGE RECALLS
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PDA INVOLVEMENT IN RECALLS

• Hallmark/Westland Beef
• Tracked down more than 529,000 pounds of meat
• Identified 260 school districts/schools with the
  meat in question
• Confirmed 78,000 pounds of the product had been
  consumed
• Secured and destroyed more than 450,000 pounds of
  the product still in schools
• Peanut Corporation Of America
• Sent the State inspectors into facilities to
  immediate check for recalled product
• Completed 3 recall audits with the FDA
• Setton Corporation Pistachios
• Locally 1000s of products related to the above
  recalls
• Phillips Mushrooms Inc, Enoki Mushrooms
• And Now Sprouts..
• Notifications sent to all Commonwealth food
  facilities for which email addresses are
  available, through the Digital Health Department

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EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

• Prevent, Protect, Respond, Recover
• No two food safety threats are the same
• Normal Emergencies, Fire, Flood, Food Vehicle
  Accidents
• Foodborne Illnesses
• Food Recalls
• Food Tampering
• In the past two years there have been a variety
  of food safety threats
• Sprout Recall Pistacchio Recall Peanut Recall
• Hallmark/Westland Beef took us into schools and
  food pantries
• Pills in frozen fish product created an FBI/PSP
  connection
• Response to threats connect the agriculture,
  food, health and emergency response communities
  at all levels (local, state, federal)
• By working together before, during and after
  outbreaks/threats, all involved can review the
  lessons learned from each threat and continue to
  streamline the process
• This evaluation of response efforts enables all
  of us to better protect and defend our food
  supply
• Extensive work at tabletop exercises,
  conferences and related emergency response events
  enhance PDAs ability to keep Pennsylvania
  growing

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Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

• SAFE Initiative
• The Pennsylvania department of Agriculture is
  working with their sister agencies and industry
  to implement the Strategy for Agriculture and
  Food Excellence or S.A.F.E. Governor has formed
  a Council, chaired by the Secretary of
  Agriculture and the Secretary of Health, to
  recommend and prioritize issues for the SAFE
  initiative.

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Questions?

• Thank you!