Environmental Health Services Food Service Inspection Reports
What does the Saginaw County Health Department inspect?
How often is the food service establishment inspected?
What standard does the health department use when making an inspection?
What kinds of violations are there?
What happens if an establishment has violations?
What does the Saginaw County Health Department inspect?
The Saginaw County Health Department inspects food service establishments.
Examples include:
Establishments can be fixed, mobile or special transitory.
For information about retail food stores and food processors, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, bakeries, meat markets, warehouses, and farm stands, contact the regional office of the Michigan Department of Agriculture at (800) 292-3939 or log on to www.michigan.gov/mda. The Saginaw County Health Department does not regulate these establishments.
How often is the food service establishment inspected?
According to Michigan law, food service establishments are inspected as follows:
NORMAL inspection frequency: Establishments that operate year round shall be inspected once every six (6) months.
SEASONAL inspection frequency: Establishments that operate nine (9) or fewer months each year shall be inspected once per season of operation.
REDUCED inspection frequency:
Low Risk Establishments – Serve primarily non-potentially hazardous foods (coffee shops, concession stands, theaters, etc.) [Category X-Once every (12) months]
Medium Risk Establishments – Limited menu; cook and serve potentially hazardous foods (fast food operations, schools and bars, etc.). [Category Y – Once every (6-12) months pending inspection history of the facility].
High Risk Establishments – Extensive menu; complex food preparation such as cooking, cooling, reheating and involves potentially hazardous foods (full service restaurants, hospitals, etc.). [Category Z – Once every (6) months]
The inspections described above are “ROUTINE” inspections. One or more “FOLLOW-UP” inspections may take place shortly after a routine inspection to verify that violations have been corrected.
Routine inspections are typically unannounced, unless special circumstances warrant.
What standard does the health department use when making an inspection?
The standards for all food establishments in Michigan are set by the Michigan Food Law, Act 92 of 2000, as amended (Effective October 1, 2012). Food establishments shall comply with this law. Click here to view the Michigan Food Law.
The Michigan Food Law adopted the 2009 Food Code for the US Food and Drug Administration as the sanitation standard for all Michigan food establishments. Click here to view the 2009 Food Code.
What kinds of violations are there?
There are three main categories of violations: priority items, priority foundation items and core items.
Priority and Priority Foundation violations are more likely than core violations to lead to contamination of food or to result in illness if not corrected.
Priority Item – A provision in the Food Code most likely to cause a foodborne illness.
Examples of priority violations include:
Priority Foundation Item – A provision in the Food Code that if not corrected may cause a priority violation.
Examples of priority foundation violations include:
Core Item – A provision in the Food Code that includes items that relate to general sanitation, over all maintenance of the equipment and the facility.
Examples of core violations include:
Inspections of food service establishments in Michigan are not scored.
The best way to judge the results of an inspection is to read the entire inspection report!
A good routine inspection report would have:
A typical routine inspection report may have:
A poor routine inspection report generally has:
It is important to remember that the presence of violations in a past inspection report does not necessarily mean that an establishment has the same violations today. Furthermore, large establishments with extensive menus will generally have more violations than small establishments with simple menus. This does not mean that large establishments are less safe than smaller ones. So when comparing inspection reports from different establishments, consider whether they are of similar size and have similar menus.
What happens if an establishment has violations?
A food service operator shall correct all violations of the Food Code by the time allowed in the inspection report.
Failure to do so results in enforcement action such as follow-up inspection, office conference, informal hearing, limited menu, food service consultant required for oversite and training, additional food safety training of staff, temporary closure of the facility until compliance is achieved.