1 Food and Dairy Safety Program Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Legislative Audit Bureau July 2008

2 Program Responsibilities u DATCP: –Regulates approximately 29,400 food and dairy establishments. –Regulates certain professionals involved in the production of food and dairy products. –Oversees contracts with local health departments that regulate 5,000 retail food establishments. u DHS, formerly DHFS, regulates restaurants.

3 Primary Regulatory Activities u DATCP’s main regulatory activities: –Licensing individuals and facilities. –Regularly inspecting all establishments. –Contracting with local governments. –Collecting and analyzing food samples for the presence of bacteria and other pathogens. –Testing dairy samples for the presence of antibiotic drug residues and harmful bacteria. –Responding to food emergencies.

4 Licensing and Funding u In FY , DATCP issued 29,384 licenses. u Approximately one-half of licenses were for dairy farms. u In FY , program expenditures totaled $8.4 million. u 54.9 percent was funded with fee revenue, 41.6 percent with GPR, and 3.5 percent with federal funds.

5 Food and Dairy Staffing u In FY : –The program had 97.6 FTE staff. –Staff salaries and fringe benefits accounted for three-fourths of total expenditures. –Approximately one-half of staff are inspectors.

6 Inspection Timeliness FY through FY

7 Inspector Workloads

8 Factors Affecting Timeliness u Inspections were more often timely when inspection frequency is specified in state law. u State law does not specify inspection frequencies for Grade B dairy plants or for retail food establishments. u Approximately 30 percent of these establishments were not inspected when scheduled.

9 Sampling and Testing u From FY through FY DATCP tested samples from 29,454 Grade A dairy plants and from 12,459 food and other dairy establishments. u In almost all instances DATCP met Grade A dairy sampling requirements. u Although DATCP increased environmental sampling by 40 percent, it collected fewer samples than it had planned.

10 Overview of Enforcement Efforts u DATCP relies on voluntary compliance. u No follow-up regulatory action was needed in 94.4 percent of routine inspections. u In 50 cases that suggested significant noncompliance, DATCP did not take timely and sufficient enforcement action in 13: –11 had ongoing violations for at least 2 years –7 had ongoing violations for at least 3.5 years –2 had ongoing violations for more than 7 years

11 Enforcement Concerns u DATCP’s difficulty gaining compliance with establishments that do not willing cooperate is longstanding. u We noted similar concerns in prior audits in 1983 and u DATCP should be expected to use its enforcement power to protect consumers. u Allowing some establishments to consistently not meet standards is unfair to the majority of establishments that do comply with them.

12 Oversight of Local Agencies u DATCP has entered into agreements with 34 local health departments. u Local health departments regulate 52 percent of grocery stores, delicatessens, and other retail food establishments. u Since 2004, DATCP has not conducted required annual reviews. u For FY only 21 of the 34 health departments submitted required data to DATCP.

13 Food Emergencies u DATCP is the lead state agency responsible for responding to food emergencies. u DATCP identified 41 food emergencies from FY through FY u Six food emergencies involved human illness that affected between 1 and 61 people. u DATCP takes appropriate action in responding to food emergencies but documentation of outcomes needs improvement.

14 Recommendations u We recommend that DATCP report by January 2009 on: –its efforts to develop and measure compliance with inspection frequency standards; –its efforts to increase the percentage of planned environmental samples that are tested annually; –its efforts to enhance the timeliness and effectiveness of food and dairy enforcement actions; –its plans to improve the review of local health departments’ retail food safety activities; and –its efforts to ensure compliance with all internal food emergency safety response procedures.

15 Food and Dairy Safety Program Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Legislative Audit Bureau July 2008