Target: Less than 2.21 priority item violations per inspection.  The Program has noticed a steady incidence of priority violations per inspection below target value. There was a drop in the last quarter of priority violations per inspection to the lowest level since this metric has been tracked.  It is interesting to note that this was also the highest number of inspections completed since tracking began as well.

This metric has regularly exceeded the target. but the metric tells an incomplete story because we do not know which violations are being marked, if they are repeat violations for establishments, or if there are specific violations that are most often cited, that need to be targeted for education.

We will be working this fiscal year on training material for risk factor violations, such as employee health, that can be used specifically in bars and in food service establishments where they do not have food safety management systems in place.  We will be working with local health departments to make sure they properly understand the risk factor violations and will also be working on the educational visits and training on how local health departments use those in the next fiscal year to pinpoint risk factor reduction in all Category 4 establishments.