Spring 2007
Volume 1, Issue 2
Minnesota Department of Health
Division of Environmental Health
Environmental Health Services Section
PWDU Quarterly Update
Partnership and Workforce Development Unit
Advisory Council Formed to Assist Delegation Agreement Process
Minnesota Department of Health
(MDH) is drafting a new Delegation
Agreement to replace the current
Agreement that has been in place
for two decades. As part of that
process, MDH has formed an
Advisory Council so delegated
programs and other stakeholders
will have a forum for reviewing,
discussing and advising on the
contents of the new Agreement.
The following information is selected from the Delegation Agreement Advisory Council Charter:
Purpose and Goals of the
Advisory Council
The purpose of the Advisory Council is to support the adoption of a
revised Delegation Agreement
between MDH and applicable local
authorities. The goals of the
Advisory Council are to:
• Review the proposed Delegation
Agreement for environmental
health services.
• Contact interested parties and
solicit input on the proposed
agreement.
• Develop recommendations on
the proposed agreement.
• Association of Minnesota Counties
• Develop recommendations for
implementation of the final Delegation Agreement.
• State Community Health Services
Advisory Committee
• Act as liaison to stakeholders to
ensure inclusiveness in the delegation process.
Final membership was determined
by the Commissioner of Health and
based on nominations.
Roles and Responsibilities of
Advisory Council Members
Meetings and Attendance
Council members will:
• Speak on behalf of the organizations and constituents that they
represent to advise the agency
on the development of a new
Delegation Agreement.
• Assist MDH in communicating
the Delegation Agreement process to constituents.
• Reflect the feedback of their constituents to Council discussions.
• Seek consensus among members whenever possible.
• Local Public Health Association
• Hospitality Minnesota
The Council will meet monthly between April and August 2007 (See
Timetable on page 6). The first
meeting is now scheduled for April
26. Notification of Council meetings
will be provided by MDH to local environmental health programs and all
delegated public health agencies.
The public are welcome to attend.
Welcome to this second issue of
the PWDU Update.
In this issue:
Delegation Agreement
Advisory Council
Pages 1
and 6
Training and Conference
News
Pages 2
and 3
Restaurant Study
Abstract
Page 4
Page 5
• Non-Metro large counties
EH Knowledge Management Project Update
• Non-Metro small counties
Pool Matters
Page 5
Staff Contact Information
Page 6
Council Membership
The Council is comprised of one full
member and one or two alternate
members from each of the following
groups or organizations:
• Metropolitan counties
• Minnesota Cities
Page 2
PWDU Quarterly Update
Training and Conference
Food Managers Course Providers Workshop, April 26
MDH is offering a workshop for
instructors of Food Manager Certification (FMC) courses. The workshop will be April 26, 2007 from
9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M at MDH’s
Snelling Office Park facility, 1645
Energy Park Drive in Saint Paul.
Sessions at this “Practices and
Principles” course will include:
• FMC Program Enhancements
• Multi-Lingual Resources
• Basic Food Safety Microbiology
• Techniques for Course Providers
• Exam Criteria and Security
• Foodborne Illness Awareness
• Food Code Questions and
Answers
The workshop is designed specifically for FMC course providers.
Attendees will receive four continuing education credits toward re-
newal of a State of Minnesota Food
Manager Certificate. Most sessions
will be interactive and will provide
attendees with useful tools to use in
their own training.
The registration fee is $50 and includes all course materials, training
tools, lunch and breaks.
For information about this training
opportunity, contact Tracie at:
651-201-4502 or
[email protected].
MEHA Spring Conference, May 2-4
• Wells, pumps and bacti
• Perflouro-carbon contamination
• Beach monitoring
The Minnesota Environmental
Health Association (MEHA) Spring
Conference will be held May 2-4 at
Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge in
Grand Rapids.
The agenda, found online at:
www.mehaonline.org, will include
presentations on:
• Water safety trends
• Spanish language training
• Emergency preparedness
• Foodborne illness response
• Efficacy of salt/solvent cells
• Outbreaks and recalls
• Nuisances in relation to vulnerable populations
• Communicating with older
adults
See the MEHA website or contact
Bill Adler for more information or
with any suggestions for other conference topics or dynamic speakers. There is still room on the
agenda. Bill can be reached at:
507-292-5137 or by e-mail at :
[email protected].
Emergency Notification, Risk Communication Workshop, June 2007
PWDU staff are planning a videoconference to take place in June.
This will be a half-day workshop on
response to food-related illness and
outbreaks, including:
• Demonstration of the MIR3
Emergency Notification System,
first used to notify partners during the spinach recall and a
Norovirus outbreak in 2006.
• Discussion of risk communication principles. Attendees will
learn to describe risks honestly
and accurately without unnecessarily alarming their audience.
• Advice on messaging and the
media; how to manage risk
information in a crisis.
This conference should be available
at 10-12 sites throughout the state
and will be available later on DVD.
Date, times and locations will be
available later this month. For information, call 651-201-4506 or e-mail
[email protected].
Page 3
Opportunities
National Food Defense Exercise
A safe and secure food supply is
one of the federal government’s
chief priorities. FDA, USDA, state
and local agencies are engaged in
a collaborative, national food defense exercise to assess our ability
to prepare for and respond to a
food or agriculture sector threat.
The exercise is aimed at assessing
our readiness to respond to threats
involving multiple jurisdictions and
to carry out a variety of planned
activities to increase awareness of
food defense issues and to detect
an attack.
Over one hundred federal, state,
and local agencies volunteered to
participate in the exercise from
early March to mid-April 2007. Participating agencies were assigned
to conduct special inspections
and/or collect samples of certain
food products within their jurisdictions. In the case of a real attack,
these activities would serve the purposes of getting critical information
to the food industry and identifying
a contaminated product.
These special inspections include
discussion and presentation of the
ALERT food defense message to
the establishment, and collecting
traceback-traceforward information
on certain commodities of interest.
contaminated with an unknown substance. In the first week of the exercise inspectors targeted retail facilities that sell/serve tomato based
pasta sauce for inspection, food
defense education, sampling, and
collecting traceback information.
The next phase of the exercise will
involve related activities in school
kitchens and food manufacturing
firms. A report detailing lessons
learned from the exercise will be
published by FDA in Summer 2007.
In this case, the simulated threat
was a tomato based pasta sauce
Request for Topics: Proposed Regional Training
Another training event in the planning stages at MDH is being referred here to as the “autumn roadshow.” This will be an in-person
training rather than a videoconference and will be offered in several
regional locations.
Timing of the workshops will be
somewhat dependent on the
schedule for the regional informa-
tional meetings planned as part of
the Delegation Agreement process
(See Delegation Agreement Timetable, page 6).
Please contact Chris if there are
any topics that you would like included on the agenda for this training.
Chris Forslund of PWDU is collecting suggestions for training topics
for this traveling workshop. So far,
suggestions include sessions on
plan review, pool inspection, and
plumbing.
You may call Chris at 651-201-4230
or e-mail him at:
[email protected]
We’ll keep you posted on topics
and dates as plans move forward.
More Upcoming Events
April 19, 2007:
Environmental Health Specialist/
Sanitarian Registration exam, St.
Paul. See:
www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/
san/index.htm
April 27, 2007: Recreational Water
Advisory Committee, 9:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m., Contact Bill Kass at
[email protected] or
507-287-2692 for information.
May 17, 2007: InterAgency Review
Council, 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.,
MDH Snelling Office Park, St. Paul.
Contact Angela at:
[email protected] or
651-201-4506 for information.
June 18-21, 2007: NEHA Annual
Conference, Atlantic City, NJ.
See www.neha.org for information.
PWDU Quarterly Update
Page 4
ATP Restaurant Study
type, and type of dishwashing
equipment affected failure rates.
Methods
The
following are excerpts from the Abstract,
“Assessment of Adenosine 5'triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence testing for the rapid testing of
equipment and utensil cleanliness
in restaurants. ”
Introduction
Pathogenic organisms can survive
for prolonged periods on food contact surfaces (FCS) and cause outbreaks when transferred from these
surfaces to food. Sanitization of
food equipment and utensils is an
extremely important food safety
measure. However, food residues
may protect microbes from antimicrobial treatments; thus, food
contact surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned before effective
sanitizing can be done.
ATP bioluminescence rapid hygiene
monitoring was developed to assess food contact surface cleanliness. The test is based on a
chemical reaction that produces
light in direct proportion to the
amount of total organic matter on a
surface.
The goal of this study was to conduct an ATP survey of clean equipment and utensils (FCS) to determine how frequently they failed
ATP testing, and how variables
such as menu, equipment/utensil
A total of 493 knives, forks, spoons,
plates, cutting boards, and slicers
were taken from clean storage in
restaurants and tested for ATP.
The entire eating surface of forks,
knives and spoons were swabbed,
and the rims of cups and a band
approximately 5 cm on either side
of the rim were swabbed. The food
contact surface of plates were
swabbed in a zigzag pattern in an
east to west and north to south direction, and a 10 cm2 area at the
centers of cutting boards and slicer
blades were swabbed. The food
grip of slicers was also swabbed.
Results
Overall, 355 out of 493 (72%) of the
FCS passed ATP testing. For utensils, failure rates ranged from 11%
for cups, to 33% for spoons, but
approximately one of every two
(50%) slicers
Food
and cutting
Contact
boards failed
Pass
Surface
[Table 1].
The type of
food served
(i.e., American,
Asian, other)
and the dishwashing equipment used by
the restaurant
were significantly associated with the
rates of failure.
Conclusions
ATP testing is a simple, practical,
and efficient way to monitor food
contact surface hygiene in food
facilities. The technology can be
used to validate protocols for hardto-clean surfaces, to identify areas
on equipment that are especially
hard to clean, or to train food workers in proper cleaning techniques.
On the other hand, the cost of routine ATP testing could become prohibitive, and reports that ATP tests
may be adversely affected by detergents and disinfectants are discouraging. Follow-up studies should be
carried to out to fully assess the
utility of ATP bioluminescence hygiene monitoring in the restaurant
setting.
For more information contact Paul
Allwood at 651-201-4511 or by email at:
[email protected].
Percent
Failing
Test Results
Fail
Cups
79
9
10
Plates
69
21
23
Knives
65
29
31
Forks
63
29
32
Spoons
62
31
33
Slicers
6
5
46
Boards
12
13
52
Total
356
137
Page 5
Environmental Health Knowledge Management Project (EHKMP)
The Environmental Health Knowledge Management Project
(EHKMP) is an initiative to improve
the collection and sharing of environmental health information
throughout Minnesota.
The initiative, which began a year
ago, is a broad-based project that
includes environmental health programs and activities at the state
and local levels. Information
pertaining to food programs in
Minnesota was chosen as the initial
focus of EHKMP efforts.
In June 2006, the EHMKP Working
Group (Food Program) was formed
to work on this project. Group
members include local partners, a
representative of the Minnesota
Environmental Health Association,
staff from the Minnesota Departments of Health and Agriculture,
and two EHKMP Steering Committee members serving in an exofficio capacity.
After many months of hard work,
the EHKMP Working Group (Food
Program) has nearly completed
their task. They will soon present
the EHKMP Steering Committee
with a draft action plan for improving the statewide sharing of selected food program licensure, inspection, and enforcement data.
The draft action plan includes:
• Diagrams illustrating the basic
flow of licensure, inspection, and
enforcement data within food
programs,
• A dictionary of food program
data elements considered important to share on a statewide
basis, and
• Recommendations for improving
statewide sharing of food program licensure, inspection, and
enforcement data.
Once the draft action plan meets
the approval of the EHKMP Steering Committee, it is hoped that
recommendations will be implemented so that improvements in the
sharing of food program licensure,
inspection, and enforcement data
will be realized.
For more information see http://
www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/
local/knowproj/wrkgrpfood.html
Recreational Water Advisory Committee
The Minnesota Recreational Water
Advisory Committee (RWAC) is a
volunteer group of swimming pool
professionals that meets quarterly
to discuss the aquatic issues of the
day and to lend advice to the State
Swimming Pool Program.
RWAC members include public use
swimming pool stakeholders such
as: Design Engineers; Construction
Engineers; Pool Builders; State,
County, and City Environmental
Health Sanitarians, Managers and
Epidemiologists; Certified Pool Operator and Aquatic facility Operator
Instructors.
This committee is currently chaired
by Bill Kass of Olmsted County Environmental Health. The group was
founded by Jeff Luedeman, of the
City of Bloomington Environmental
Health, four years ago.
Since then, the committee has addressed a wide range of topics from
Oxidation Reduction Potential to the
definition of a pool alteration to
canine swim days.
If you would like to become a member of RWAC, please contact Bill
Kass at: 507-287-2692 or by e-mail
at: [email protected].
If you would like information about
pool plan review, new construction
or the pool code, call Steve Klemm
at: 651-201-4503 or by e-mail at
[email protected].
Pool operators who would like a
pre-inspection checklist to help prepare for pool opening or inspection
can contact Chris Forslund at: 651201-4230 or by e-mail at
[email protected].
Delegation Agreement Timetable
Minnesota Department of Health
Division of Environmental Health
Environmental Health Services Section
Orville L. Freeman Building
625 North Robert Street
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155
http://www.health.state.mn.us/foodsafety
A Note from Colleen Paulus
We have had a change in supervisors for the Partnership and
Workforce Development Unit (PWDU). Roger Carlson joined
MDH in 2006 to help lay the foundation for the PWDU and
assist with rewriting the delegation agreement.
Roger’s temporary assignment is coming to an end on April
13, 2007. Roger enthusiastically approached his temporary
assignment with passion and dedication for creating an improved food safety system throughout Minnesota. We want to
thank Roger for providing a historical perspective which helped
guide the revision of the delegation agreement.
Nov 2006
through
MDH internal comment, revision and review
of proposed Delegation Agreement
Apr 2007
through
Advisory Council meets monthly. Internal
and external comment, revision and review
continue.
Sep 2007
through
Regional information meetings are held.
Internal and external comment, review and
revision continue.
Jan 2008
Revision and review conclude. Agreement
is finalized.
Feb 2008
Final Delegation Agreement is released and
published.
Feb 2008
through Dec
2008
New Delegation Agreement is phased in.
April Bogard will assume the supervisory role on April 16.
She comes with years of epidemiological experience working
on foodborne illness outbreaks. April has been an active
participant with Food Safety Partnership projects and the
Minnesota Department of Health Food Safety Center web
page. Her experience as an environmental health specialist in
local health agencies will serve her well as the PWDU develops outreach materials and activities for local partners.
PWDU Staff Contact Information
Name
Got A Question?
Phone and Emaill
April Bogard
Supervisor, Partnership and Workforce Development Unit
[email protected]
651-201-5076
Local program guidance, environmental health training
[email protected]
651-201-4230
Deborah Durkin
Food safety educational materials, training and collaborations
[email protected]
651-201-4509
Mike Kaluzniak
Data systems, Statewide Hospitality Fee, and emergency
information system
[email protected]
651-201-4517
Paul Allwood
Foodborne illness outbreak investigation, research
[email protected]
651-201-4511
Steve Klemm
Swimming pool construction and inspections
[email protected]
651-201-4503
Tony Georgeson
Rapid inspection software
[email protected]
218-332-5167
Christopher
lund
Fors-