COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, June 5, 2007 2:15 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO, CHAIR COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN BILL 070189 - An ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by providing that all persons engaged in the preparation of food and especially those in the fast food establishments shall wear protective gloves... BILL 070308 - An ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by requiring semiannual inspection of mobile food vendors... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good afternoon. This is the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. I'd like to note that we have a quorum in the presence of Councilman O'Neill, Councilwoman Miller, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, Councilman Kenney and Councilwoman Tasco as Chair. The testimony we have is on both bills, so we'll have both bills read into the record.
Bill No. 070189, an ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by providing that all persons engaged in the preparation of food and especially those in the fast food establishments shall wear protective gloves and wear a suitable head covering or hair restraint to protect the food from contamination. Additionally, Bill No. 070308, an ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health 3 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. Code," by requiring semiannual inspection of mobile food vendors and providing for fees, all under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you very much. Is there someone here to testify on these bills? Mr. John Rafes, is he present? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: He stepped out for a minute.
Is there anyone else here to testify on these two bills? (No response.)
We'll just stand in recess until he returns. Thank you. The Law and Government hearing will follow immediately after this hearing, which should not take very long. (Short recess.)
Good afternoon. 4 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC.
Would you identify yourself for the record, please, and proceed with your testimony.
Do you want to read your testimony or you want to summarize it, however you want to do it.
Good afternoon, Chairwoman Tasco and members of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. I am John Rafes, Director of the Environmental Health Services division of the Department of Public Health. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the proposal to amend Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code to change certain requirements of the City's food inspection program. In accordance with the Home Rule Charter and Title 6 of The 5 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. Philadelphia Code, the Department of Public Health has the responsibility for regulating the operation of food establishments within Philadelphia to protect the wholesomeness of foods and the health of the ultimate consumers of these foods. The Department regulates a variety of types of retail food sales and eating and drinking establishments using applicable portions of the Department's regulations governing food establishments, which are, as with all regulations of the Department, adopted by the Philadelphia Board of Health. The Department and the staff of Environmental Health Services and the Office of Food Protection take this responsibility very seriously. The first part of Bill 070189 would establish new sections, Section 22 6-407 and Section 6-408, under Chapter 23 6-400, Miscellaneous Standards and Requirements. The proposed Section 6-407 of the City Code sets forth requirements 6 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. for persons engaged in the preparation of food to wear protective gloves and wear suitable head coverings to protect the food from contamination. The issue of preventing contamination of food items is an important part of our food inspection program and, as such, has been addressed in the food establishment regulations used by the Department as they evolved over many years to the regulations that are in place today. 2 of the regulations governing food establishments prohibits unnecessary personal contact of exposed ready-to-eat foods by bare hands through the use of suitable utensils, deli tissue, spatulas, tongs or single-use gloves. In addition, Section 9-02 of the regulations includes requirements that proper personal hygiene practices be taken by food handlers, including specifically that suitable head coverings or hair restraints be used to protect food from contamination. These food protection requirements are already 7 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. components not only of the food establishment inspection process, but also the food handler education and certification process required under the regulations. The second part of Bill 070189 would establish Section 6-408 requiring a biannual inspection frequency for mobile food vendors engaged in the preparation of food for immediate consumption. In November 2006, as part of the Department's testimony to the Committee on Public Health and Human Services on the subject of food establishment inspection program, we provided details of the risk-based inspection program we were and continue to be in process of implementing. Rather than a fixed number of annual inspections of all food establishments, the risk-based program establishes an appropriate range of from one to four inspections annually for specific establishments or establishment classes depending on the assigned risk 8 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. category. Risk categories of all our food-handling establishments, including mobile food vendors, are based on the thorough evaluation of the entire food-handling operation and the potential for food-borne illness to occur. Under the risk-based program, the risk level of mobile food vending operations addressed in the proposed bill would be such that this entire class of vendors would require biannual inspections.
Accordingly, the Department anticipates that when the risk assessing procedures are complete and the risk-based program is fully implemented, the category of mobile food vendor operations engaged in preparation of food for immediate consumption will receive a minimum of two inspections per year. Bill 070308 would require the biannual inspections of mobile food vendors as a condition of biannual licensing. It would also require that the inspection protocol include the 9 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. specific requirements that the mobile food cart operator have a valid Food Establishment Personnel Food Safety Certificate and that the cart have a current food vending license issued by the Department of Licenses and Inspections. 3 of the regulations, mobile food vending operators are already required to conspicuously place the Food Safety Certificate and the applicable License and Inspection food license as are required of all food establishments. While we in the Department of Public Health fully agree with the intended objectives of each aspect of the proposed additions to the Health Code, based upon the application of the current regulations in our inspection process and the scheduled adoption of the risk-based inspection program, we believe that these additions are not needed at this time in order for the Department to meet the objectives of the food establishment 10 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. inspection program. Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today. I will answer any questions at this time.
Thank you. Are there any questions from any members of the Committee? (No response.)
The sponsor of the bill is not here. Is she on her way?
Because evidently she had some specific reason for introducing these two bills and certainly we would like to know what they are. And we did have a hearing about the food establishments and the inspectors, and I wanted to ask you -- and her concern may be one of the concerns I have on some of the vendors. They do not use protective 11 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. gloves. They do not use plastic or tissue. Some of them handle money and in addition also handle food.
Yeah. There would be -- if this bill were to pass as it is written, it would present an issue to mobile food vendors to make it impossible to comply with the law. In each exchange of food between a vendor, which is almost always a single-person operation, it requires the handling of money. As the regulations are at the moment, the vendors may use deli tissues and tongs to serve food, accept money and continue in this process and be in complete requirement with the law. If this were to pass, it would require every time a food product would exchange between the vendor and the customer and money is accepted, that the gloves would have to be removed, the hands would have to be washed and the new gloves would have to be applied. Considering the amount of water that the vendors carry in their 12 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. tanks, this would be a physical impossibility. There wouldn't be enough water to wash their hands that many times.
They use a deli tissue -- they're supposed to use a deli tissue to pick up the bun, the tongs to place the hot dog in the bun and then they can accept money without washing their hands or using gloves, because their hands never come in contact with the food.
So how many inspectors do -- we went through this before on my hearing. Have you all hired additional food inspectors?
Since the hearings, yes, we have hired three and we're hiring more next week.
How many do you need really to do an adequate job? Because you're not just inspecting 13 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. vendors, you're doing the restaurants and all the other facilities we talked about in the hearings before.
Well, the hiring of the new inspectors and after their training period and the adoption of the risk-based program, we should have adequate number of inspectors to inspect establishments at least once a year, in some cases two, three and four times a year based on the risk.
Councilwoman Campbell is here. It's Councilwoman's bill, and certainly she would probably have some questions for you. Without reading this testimony again for the Councilwoman, could you summarize the provisions of the bill and what concerns or what some of the issues you raised for her? 14 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC.
Certainly. A quick summary would be that just about everything or everything that's in the bill is already within our current regulations and currently being practiced. More specifically, the requirement for gloves would supersede those requirements now which permit other ways of preventing bare-hand contacts with foods and would be actually troublesome to single-person operations.
Councilwoman, do you have comments you want to make about your bills?
This is trying to get compliance with what he was saying also about the gloves. Would he reiterate that for me so there's no 20 misunderstanding.
Why don't you speak on each bill and summarize your testimony, to the extent that you can, to the bills for the Councilwoman.
Certainly. The 15 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. requirement for the hair nets is already in place and we currently enforce that provision of the Health Code. The proposed requirement to require gloves is already accomplished in the concept that bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods is already regulated and permissible for vendors and other food handlers to use other methods, such as deli tissues, tongs, spatulas and tools of that nature. The provision for gloves is actually somewhat troublesome if they are required to use that as the only method to prevent bare-hand contact for single-person operations, as the operators would have to wash their hands and don new gloves after every exchange of money or contact with customers' hands, and for a single-person operation, this would be difficult, if almost impossible, to comply with.
Are you telling me that you don't think gloves 16 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. are necessary?
Not specifically, in lieu of the fact that our current regulations have other ways to prevent bare-hand contact with foods which are in use today in most of the establishments in Philadelphia.
Such as? I've gone into restaurants or, should I say, fast food establishments and I've seen people -- although they could also do it with gloves too -- scratch their hair and then touch the food that they're dispensing to people. I've also seen people with no covering on their heads in a lot of establishments. And there are a lot of false hair pieces that people wear today that are very long and seen some strands of hair fall out of it right where the food is. Now, if you have a mechanism in place for this, then it's not very effective, because I see this all the time. 17 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. As far as the gloves, I think gloves do tend to cut down. We have so many infections, diseases, many of which today even the scientists cannot tell us what the origin is from, and it seems to me that it's incumbent upon us to do everything we can to make it safer for consumers what they eat.
Yes, Councilwoman. The conditions that you've mentioned are already violations of the Philadelphia Health Code, and if we became aware of them, we would investigate immediately.
Well, tell me this: What mechanism do you have in place to enhance what I'm saying or to see that it becomes more effective?
I'm asking you what -- since you're telling me no gloves, you don't think that's wise, then tell me what else do you have in place as an alternative that does 18 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. protect the consumer more?
The current regulations provide for minimizing or eliminating bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods by the use of either gloves, spatulas, tongs, deli tissues or any other device that would prevent direct-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods, and we see that practice routinely. For a good example would be a hot dog vendor, where you observe them picking up the bun with the deli tissue, placing the hot dog in the bun with the tongs, then collecting money.
Sir, I go to many places that handles food for consumers and it is rare, unless it's in a supermarket where you're very easily observed, it is rare that you see people pick up a bun with a tissue. They pick it up with their hand.
Well, I would agree that there are violations of the Code that we need to investigate. 19 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC.
Then why would you object to taking another guarded measure by making people have to wear gloves that they can throw away and then if they do something, they can get another pair of disposal gloves, which would make it safer for the consumer?
We would be reluctant to limit the options that food operators have in preventing bare-hand contact with food and making them use only that option. Our feeling is that in single-person operation and other operations where there's contact with money, that it's unlikely that they would change their gloves hundreds of times a day.
But they should if it means protecting the people. You have a risk-based inspection program?
We have been developing a risk-based inspection 20 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. program since the fall. Our current process is, it's ready to be implemented as soon as our software development is complete. We're anticipating the end of the summer for completion.
Did you bring anything with you today indicating the progress that has been made with the implementation of this so-called risk-based program?
I said did you bring anything with you today indicating the progress that has been made with the implementation of this risk-based inspection program?
Yes. Within the last year, we've entered into a partnership with the FDA. We've started an evaluation and assessment of our entire food inspection program. We've applied for funding in the amount of $200,000 from the Pennsylvania Department 21 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. of Agriculture. We have received that funding, and we have been working with their software vendor since approximately February in the development of the new software which will enable us to implement a risk-based inspection program. We have just completed four days of training with the FDA, who came into Philadelphia for the expressed purpose of training our staff in that program.
That's not what I said. I said did you bring anything with you? The question was, did you bring anything with you today indicating the progress that has been made with the implementation of the risk-based inspection program? That's what I asked.
I'm not sure I understand the question. I just indicated all the things we did to move the risk-based inspection program along to the point where we're ready to 22 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. implement it at this time.
That is not what I said. I asked you, did you bring anything with you that you could show --
I'm sorry. My apologies. No, I did not bring anything with me. No. 10
How many food-handling operations will be covered by the risk-based inspection program?
Are you asking about the number of food establishments in the City?
I said how many food-handling operations will be covered by the risk-based inspection program?
They all would. Approximately 12,000 establishments in the City of Philadelphia.
How would you do that? I didn't know you had 23 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. that kind of manpower.
The current manpower combined with the recently hired inspectors, which are known as sanitarians, and the inspectors, our candidates we intend to interview next week, all combined, by the implementation date we should be in a good position to implement a risk-based inspection program.
How many of the food-handling operations have been successfully incorporated into the risk-based program?
At this point, none of them have been. This is all part of the implementation process where establishments will be categorized, and the process of the categorization is, that is almost complete at this time.
You indicate that the proposed ordinance is not needed and yet your risk-based inspection program provides for exactly 24 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. what your program will ultimately do.
Well, I was addressing the specific issues of the legislation, specifically the need for hair nets, which are already in the current regulations, and also the requirement that mobile food vendors who prepare ready-to-eat foods be inspected biannually. And according to a risk-based inspection program, they will be inspected the minimal time of twice per year and a significant percentage of them will be inspected many more times than that.
Well, frankly, I do intend to put an amendment in, because I think we should have put in there a minimum of twice a year.
They will be inspected twice a year upon implementation of the risk-based inspection program.
It seems contradictory to say wait until we 25 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. finish. The passage of this bill does not prevent you from continuing with the implementation of the risk-based program.
Your opposition to the ordinance really doesn't make sense to me, because all I'm trying to do here is to try to find another way to protect the consumer, to protect the people. If I'm going to California and I take a plane and you take a train, it doesn't make any difference so long as we both get there.
Well, we're definitely in agreement with the goals of the program. There's no doubt about that, Councilwoman.
Our opposition is that we don't want to limit the methods by which people can comply with the law when there are other methods that are 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. currently being practiced and are currently working.
I don't think that's been proven. If it was, you wouldn't be working on the implementation of this new program.
Well, we won't deny that there's room for improvement and also that with the frequency of inspection of whether it's once, twice or three or four times a year, there will often be circumstances where people violate the law, and hopefully that we depend on the consumers for letting us know about that so we can perform investigations.
Is your department prepared to guarantee that they will do three to four inspections a year for every facility?
No. That's not part of the risk-based program. Only categories of critical will receive three and four inspections a year. These 27 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. include facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and other places where immuno-compromised patients may reside. Other facilities, such as restaurants that prepare food, will be inspected twice per year, and establishments that have pre-packaged food may drop down to an inspection frequency of less than one a year because of their limited risk.
You don't think a restaurant could have a whole lot of diseases in there or the bacteria that could create them?
Undoubtedly, restaurants are responsible for issues of that, yes.
Okay. Thank you. MS. McCANDLESS: Councilwoman, would you mind us saying something? (Unintelligible.)
Just a minute. Could we bring you around so you can testify? 28 6/5/07 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 070189, ETC. MS. McCANDLESS: I'd rather stay here with my people.
Well, we can't hear you. MS. McCANDLESS: That's okay. I'll -- (unintelligible.)