Issue View | Council II | 2020 Biennial Meeting

This issue was submitted for consideration at a previous biennial meeting, see issue: 2016 II-020 ; new or additional information has been included or attached and the recommended solution has been revised .

PSC Issue #2 New assessment tool for Standard 8 Staffing Level Criteria

The Program Standards Committee has addressed the charges outlined in Issue 2018 II-018: Continue Revision of Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS) Standard 8 Staffing Level Criteria. The Committee has proposed a recommendation that the FDA modify the Standard 8 "Staffing Level" criteria by including the proposed model assessment tool as a secondary option to assess compliance based on the findings of the 2018 - 2020 Program Standards Committee, Subcommittee #2.

The VNRFRPS offer a systematic approach to, through a continuous improvement process, enhance retail food regulatory programs. The VNRFRPS define and provide a framework designed to accommodate both traditional and emerging approaches of regulatory programs operating within an integrated food safety system. The Program Standards Committee established a subcommittee to address the specific charges in Issue 2018 II-018. The subcommittee, with support from staff from Harris County Public Health, created a new proposed model assessment tool, ensured it to be statistically sound, and completed a pilot study among 19 jurisdictions to test the proposed model. The information collected provided the means to: (1) Improve the proposed model assessment tool that was initially created by the Standard 8 Subcommittee in Issue # 2016 II-020; (2) Validate the statistical soundness of the proposed model by confirming there was no relationship found between times and frequencies provided by "high" and "low" performing jurisdictions; (3) Determine if the proposed model assessment tool could be used in the real world setting by conducting a Pilot Study to assess the functionality of the model among varying jurisdictions; and (4) Utilize data from the study to recommend the proposed model assessment tool be included in the Standard 8 "Staffing Level" criteria as an alternative way to determine compliance.

The Conference recommends that a letter be sent to FDA asking them to modify the "Description of Requirements" for "Staffing Level" in Standard 8 by including the proposed model assessment tool as an alternative option to assess compliance for the VNRFRPS.