The Greenfield Board of Health offices are located at 20 Sanderson Street, Greenfield.
Staff photo/Paul Franz
GREENFIELD — The city's new public health official plans to further study an idea floated at a recent Board of Health meeting to align the city's testing system with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's National Retail Food Self-Regulatory Program.
The federal program, which is a national standard for risk-based food safety, inspection, and enforcement, is based on the number of annual inspections local food establishments must pass for the risk level category associated with each operation. For example, a store that only sells prepackaged food would be subject to fewer annual inspections than a store that handles and prepares raw meat.
“That would lower the risk.” [businesses] Establishments that only serve coffee, eggs, and prepackaged meals will be moved to once-a-year inspections, followed by establishments that actively serve fresh produce or on-premises preparation to twice-yearly inspections. Michael Theroux said. On March 18th he took over as Director of Health.
Theroux noted that the Board of Health has only had preliminary discussions about the federal program, and noted that state law requires municipalities to inspect food facilities twice a year, so they are not interested in participating in the program. , adding that Greenfield could be at risk of violating state law. This idea requires further discussion and research.
About 10 years ago, the city, along with about a dozen other towns in the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), initiated a federal program for safe food handling and inspection, according to Board of Health Chairman Glenn Ayers. did. He said the program stalled amid frequent changes in leadership.
“Here in Greenfield, we've had a lot of turnover in public health over the last 10 years or so, and some of them didn't transfer well. They were abandoned or forgotten. “I'm interested in returning to this framework,” explained Ayers, who became chairman of the board in February. “What I want to do is build community trust in food testing programs, rather than highlighting individual situations. … If public health is done properly, no one would notice.
“Focusing only on violations and restaurants that have to close sends the opposite message,” Ayers added. “We are in control of the situation and we want to do everything we can to do what will give us the best outcome and make sure we are spending our money.”
Mr Ayers said that while serving as community health officer for FRCOG, the city council was awarded a grant of $65,000 a year for five years to improve the municipality's food inspection and education program. He said Theroux's “extensive background in food safety” would make him comfortable entrusting the city.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at 413-930-4429 or acammalleri@recorder.com.
