Food Service Regulation | Newton County Health

Food Service Inspections/Regulations

The Environmental Health staff are responsible for conducting inspections of establishments that sell food and/or drink to the public. The random, unannounced inspections are done to check compliance with the Missouri Food Code. These facilities include restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, schools, senior centers, and mobile units as well as temporary and occasional events and festivals.

The facilities are checked for issues such as:

Proper employee hand washing
Safe food handling practices
Food preparation techniques
Food storage
Facility cleanliness
Insect/rodent infestations
Sanitizing procedures

Inspection Frequency

Inspection frequency is based upon the priority rating of the facility. An establishment priority rating is dependent on the complexity of the menu, how much food is made from raw products, how much food is made in advance rather than cooked-to-order, the population served and the inspection history of the facility. Establishments preparing food from raw ingredients are inspected more often than convenience stores that serve only non-potentially hazardous foods, such as popcorn and soda.

Establishments in Newton County are rated:

High
Medium
Low

High or Medium priority establishments are inspected at least twice a year. Establishments with a low priority are inspected annually.

Types of Inspections

Routine inspection: The inspector conducts a complete inspection covering all items in the regulations for compliance with the Missouri Food Code.
Follow-up inspection: This is an inspection for the specific purpose of re-inspecting critical items that are not in compliance at the time of the routine inspection.
Complaint inspection: This is an inspection conducted as a result of a complaint received by the health department. The specifics of the complaint are evaluated and discussed with the person in charge.

Food Inspection Violations

Food inspection violations found during an inspection fall into two categories:

Priority = Critical
Core = Non-critical

Priority items have a direct impact on the safety of the food, and if left uncorrected are more likely than other violations to directly contribute to food contamination and illness.

Examples of Priority violations are:

Inadequate temperatures
Cross contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food
Touching ready-to-eat food with bare hands
Food from an unapproved source
Lack of food safety knowledge by the person in charge
Poor personal hygiene and employee health

Core items play an important role in the overall performance of the facility but alone do not directly affect food safety and the likelihood of food-borne illness in these cases is very low.

Example of Core violations are: