Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/20/2004 03:40 PM Senate STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 378-FOOD, DRUGS, COSMETICS, CERTAIN DEVICES
REPRESENTATIVE BILL WILLIAMS, sponsor of HB 378, said the bill
is the result of several years work with the Department of
Environmental Conservation (DEC). The need stems from concern
that bar and restaurant owners are concerned about paying high
fees but seldom receiving an inspection. Since 1995 the fees
have risen from $50 to $450.
He asked DEC to come up with a plan and they did so.
Commissioner Ballard was available to explain the basic points,
he said.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS noted that Senator Cowdery had joined the
meeting.
SENATOR JOHN COWDERY asked which cities and towns already have
food inspections and whether this bill would result in a
duplication of effort.
ERNESTA BALLARD, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental
Conservation, acknowledged that it's hard for people to get
excited about regulatory change, but if you're a regulator, this
is exciting, she said. "We've been working for a year to
redesign our food inspection and safety program so that it can
achieve food safety in our state with its disconnected, no
roads, vast reaches of open space but restaurants are available
to our citizens and their guests all over the state of Alaska."
For the last 50 years they've had a consultative inspection
program so that whenever inspectors were able to make
inspections, they reviewed deficiencies and made suggestions.
This regulatory program hasn't kept pace with those that have
been developed for air, solid waste and wastewater management.
An overhaul is past due as witnessed by the fact that before
WWII there were 20 million meals served in restaurants every day
and after the war that number jumped to 60 million per day. The
National Restaurant Association (NRA) predicts that in 2004, 70
billion meals will be served in restaurants every day. Today the
average person eats out 4.2 times per week. It's time for a
change, she asserted. The NRA more than agrees and they have
already qualified over 1 million workers in their food-workers
safety certification program.
COMMISSIONER BALLARD said they propose to shift responsibility
to the restaurant owners and operators in the same way that they
hold other industry operators responsible for their performance
in all DEC regulatory areas. "When the consequences of failure
are unacceptable, we have learned...that standard operating
procedures can be followed and can dramatically increase the
likelihood of success."
CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked how they would determine that they're
doing a good job in the future.
COMMISSIONER BALLARD said the first measure of success wouldn't
be epidemiologic because you can't always be certain about the
source of the illness. It could come from the post office as
easily as from a restaurant. They will judge their success by
the implementation of the program. It requires restaurants to
advise DEC of their participation through annual or periodic
signing. They will adopt standard operating procedures and
conduct self-certification checks. DEC spot checks and will
likely discover that a high percentage of those that are visited
are maintaining their self-certification records. They implement
their air and water programs in the very same way.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS said, "So in the end you cannot tell me how
many people have gotten ill in Alaska this past year from badly
handled food in restaurants or how many people have died and you
cannot tell me five years from now."
COMMISSIONER BALLARD said that is true, but they are able to
follow and track food borne illnesses. During the recent
Iditarod, they tracked 74 cases along the trail and were able to
prevent the spread of the disease to the celebratory banquet in
Nome thanks to Kristin Ryan and her staff. They took 1,000 pair
of disposable gloves to Nome and educated the food preparers and
servers about ways to prevent the spread of disease. There
wasn't a single case of illness. "That, to me, is a crystal
clear demonstration. Every single checkpoint along the Iditarod
Trail had an outbreak of Norovirus...and we stopped it in Nome
with gloved hands. That is an operating procedure - clean hands.
We couldn't guarantee that all 800 people would wash their
hands, but we could guarantee that dirty hands wouldn't touch
the common serving utensils."
CHAIR GARY STEVENS said he applauds what they are doing, but
he's uncomfortable with the lack of statistics.
COMMISSIONER BALLARD said she could provide national statistics.
KRISTIN RYAN, director, Division of Environmental Health, told
the committee that they do have some figures for illness
outbreaks in Alaska. They are reported to the epidemiology
section, but food borne illnesses are reported at a 25 to 1
ratio. That's the dilemma they have in using numbers as an
indication that the system is working, she said.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked if we're getting better at protecting
the public or not.
MS. RYAN said it's hard to measure prevention because if one
person dies that's too many. It's difficult to count the cases
that didn't occur, but you can count cases that do occur and are
reported so you can show trends. "But it's a slippery slope to
base all your decisions on one indicator. I would recommend a
balance performance measure portfolio. ....There are a variety
of ways you can determine that people are getting safe food
rather than just relying on outbreak numbers."
COMMISSIONER BALLARD said ours is a different job than the
epidemiology job, which is trying to count the results. Our job
is to know that we're protecting people from exposure.
MS. RYAN added that a previous performance measure that will
continue to be an indicator is critical violations found while
performing inspections. "We will continue to be doing our
inspections at the frequency that we are doing them," she
assured.
SENATOR BERT STEDMAN asked about the fees.
MS. RYAN said they are proposing to charge $10 for a food
handler card that would remain valid for three years.
SENATOR STEDMAN asked if the card could be obtained online.
MS. RYAN said their primary conduit would be the Internet. The
information and test would be offered online, but arrangements
could be made for a proctored exam if a computer wasn't
available. The information would be free while the test would
carry a charge. When you pass the test, you could print your own
card that would be similar to a driver's license.
SENATOR STEDMAN asked who would take the test.
MS. RYAN said they are proposing that anyone who touches
unpackaged food would be trained. They haven't determined how
they would apply the process, but they want to engage the
regulated industry through a negotiated rule making process.
SENATOR STEDMAN asked whether DEC would impose civil fines for
violators.
MS. RYAN told him the enforcement mechanisms are narrow.
Currently they can close the establishment or press criminal
charges, but neither option is efficient for enforcing minor
regulatory violations. They propose the ability to impose civil
fines.
SENATOR STEDMAN asked whether the current inspectors would
continue in their jobs.
MS. RYAN assured him they are an essential component. She
pointed to a chart that depicts food safety as a three legged
stool with the three legs representing enforcement, managing
risks and a knowledgeable workforce. The stool doesn't stand
without all three legs.
SENATOR COWDERY asked whether someone running a hotdog stand on
the street would have to participate.
MS. RYAN said they would address that through the regulatory
process, but they're proposing that anyone who handles
unpackaged food would participate.
SENATOR COWDERY asked what score would result in a closure
order.
MS. RYAN said Anchorage is the only area in the state that has
its own food safety program and he was probably familiar with
that program.
SENATOR COWDERY asked whether they would post scores in other
areas of the state.
MS. RYAN told him that inspections aren't frequent enough to
rely on them alone for food safety. They're considering posting
an 800 number that people could call to report bad food
experiences though.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked what other states are doing in this
regard and whether this proposal is the best route.
MS. RYAN said that other states are going this route to some
extent, but Alaska food safety experts came up with this model.
COMMISSIONER BALLARD added that this solution appeals to DEC
because professionals developed the program and because it's the
system that Pillsbury Kitchens designed for NASA. In that system
you identify critical hazard steps, which are the places in food
handling where contamination might occur and you focus on those
through standard operating procedures and institutionalizing
control. Finally, the proposal is sound because the Division of
Environmental Health has used the same regulatory system for air
and wastewater and they know that it works well. There's no
reason the restaurant industry shouldn't fall in line, she said.
It's reasonable to ask people to conduct self-inspections and
implement standard operating procedures as the method of
achieving compliance with standards that are set by the
regulators, she asserted.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked whether this proposal might not overlap
with the Anchorage program ultimately causing the municipality
to close their food safety program down and rely on DEC.
COMMISSIONER BALLARD pointed out that DEC does have the
statutory authority to delegate the responsibility for food
safety. Alaska is currently the only state that administers the
program at the state level and DEC would be delighted for
jurisdictions that are capable to assume responsibility.
MS. RYAN added that Anchorage already requires their food
managers to be certified.
PAT LUBBIE, advocacy director for AARP, Alaska, spoke in favor
of the proposal. With regard to food safety, a good day is one
in which nothing happened, he said. Training workers with
certified managers does decrease food borne illnesses, he said,
and this bill will provide for that training. It also provides
fines for non-compliance. "We think this is very important for
Alaska," he concluded.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked whether other states take such a hands-
off approach to inspections.
MR. LUBBIE said there would never be enough people to do as many
food inspections as they would like, but this is a good second
choice because it places the responsibility on the restaurant
owner/operator.
ROBIN NORTHSAYER, owner/operator of Northern Hospitality
Training, spoke in support of HB 378. Having been in business
for about four years, she said she could speak from the
standpoint of a trainer as well as a consumer who has contracted
a food borne illness from a restaurant.
In the last four years she has trained close to 1,000 food
managers and about the same number of food handlers. These
people leave the training program with the knowledge and desire
to keep people safe. Food handlers and managers have a duty to
send people home safely. Sending citizens and visitors home with
food poisoning is not the kind of advertising we're looking for,
she said.
SENATOR COWDERY motioned to report HB 378 from committee with
individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. He asked
for unanimous consent. There being no objection, it was so
ordered.
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