The Municipality of Anchorage wants to bring back a health and safety scoring system that rates the establishments that serve food, then post the results online.
The city's health and human services department aims to publicize the scores of every grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop or cafeteria licensed by the municipality to serve food.
The goal is to prevent the spread of disease and to give potential diners a more clear picture of how clean their dining establishment is.
Emily and Andres Guarderas own Husky Dogs downtown. Safety is already a priority, they said.
"We have clean utensils that we hold in the cooler back here," Emily said. "We have running hot water, hand sanitizer and gloves that we use."
When it comes to food safety, they have to be on their "A" game. Because if they don't pass inspections, they're not allowed to remain in business.
"If you are not up to par, then she shuts you down on the spot," Emily said. "You don't have no time to fix it or anything. You're closed down."
The municipality's 54-item checklist includes monitoring the handling and temperature of food, as well as the personal hygiene of servers in every one of the city's food establishments.
City inspectors want the public to be able to readily access the results.
"They don't have to read the whole inspection report to get a sense of where this facility is doing a good job or meets their standards," said Tony Barrett, the city's program manager.
Under the new system, 100 points means no violations. Any place under 80 points will have to be reinspected. And if an establishment scores less than 70 points, it will be closed.
"Those things that are critical, that are more likely to cause food-bourne illness, have a higher point value, if you will, so they tend to show up a little more," said Barrett.
The new Anchorage food facility scoring system is proposed to be online January 1, 2015.
Anchorage residents can comment on how the system should be designed at the city's health and human services public hearing on Oct. 22.
Source: Food Safety News Today