School Food Safety Inspections

The comment I would make, based on Macomb County experience, is that school foodservice operations have the best food safety practices, the employees are the most conscientious on food safety principles and need the least regulation of all the licensed facilities. In light of this, requiring a second inspection is an inefficient use of inspectors time which could be better spent at full-service restaurants who need it and affect a larger portion of the population. In Macomb the average number of criticals cited at schools is less than 0.5 critical per facility. It also would have made sense for the USDA to consult with state agencies before requiring state and local health to perform an additional service without funding. Instead of an additional inspection, why not just require school food service staff to be certified in food safety principles.