Kern County Municipal Code Ch. 8.59 Food Safety Education

The purpose of this chapter is to establish standards for the requirement of individuals to attend food safety education courses and to pass a competency examination when found to have posed a risk to the health and safety of the community.

(Ord. No. G-8612, § 2, 12-15-15)

When the director of public health services or his designee determines one (1) or more of the following, he may require employees of the facility to attend food safety education courses, in addition to submission of a detailed, written corrective action plan to prevent reoccurrence.

A. The food facility has repeated violations of critical risk factors affecting food safety; and/or

B. The owner or employee with food safety certification has failed to ensure that all employees who handle unpackaged food have sufficient knowledge and understanding of how to safely prepare and serve food; and/or

C. Upon closure of the facility or as a result of the department having to take action at the facility due to poor decision making skills demonstrated by the operator and/or manager of the food facility.

(Ord. No. G-8612, § 2, 12-15-15)

Upon determination that a facility must attend food safety education courses, the director of public health services may require the owner to send all staff who engage in food preparation and/or service.

(Ord. No. G-8612, § 2, 12-15-15)

The food safety education course shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

A. Causes and contributing factors of foodborne illness;

B. The relationship between time and temperature and foodborne illness;

C. The relationship between personal hygiene and food safety;

D. Methods to prevent food contamination in all stages of food handling;

E. Procedures for cleaning and sanitizing food handling equipment and utensils; and

F. Proper decision making assistance for instances including, but not limited to, power outage, sewage spills, and rodent and/or roach infestation.

(Ord. No. G-8612, § 2, 12-15-15)

Attendees will be required to pass a food safety education competency examination following the conclusion of the presentation of the course contents. The competency examination will not be given without attendance of the food safety education course.

A. Failure to pass the competency examination with a seventy-five percent (75%) accuracy rate will result in the requirement to retake the course.

B. Failure to pass the competency examination with a seventy-five percent (75%) accuracy rate after the second attempt will result in suspension of the facility's health permit until at least a seventy-five percent (75%) accuracy rate has been demonstrated, unless a viable written corrective action plan is provided to and approved by the department indicating that the employee who has failed to pass the competency exam will no longer engage in food preparation and/or service until he/she has passed the competency examination.

(Ord. No. G-8612, § 2, 12-15-15)