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Issue Number: Council III 002

Title

EAP 2 - Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments

Issue you would like the Conference to consider

The Emergency Action Plan Committee was formed under CFP issue 2012 III-021 at the 2012 biennial meeting. Four of its charges included:

1. Reviewing and updating the CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments where appropriate;

2. Incorporating proposed criteria on acceptable time and temperature combinations that would allow for safe holding of food without impacting existing shelf life and incorporating that information into the CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments;

3. Recommending that FDA include reference to the CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments in Annex 2 of the Food Code; and

4. Developing alternative hand wash procedures for emergency events and crises.

The committee has reviewed the CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments document and updated it as deemed appropriate by committee membership. Although the vast majority of content from the CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments document was carried over into the new Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition document, formatting was extensive and several sections were removed from the new document. The committee felt submitting a revised document showing track changes would be meaningless since the vast majority of the document would show revisions due to movement of text. Therefore, we are considering this a 2nd edition. The original document is available for comparison on the CFP web site at www.foodprotect.org under the Conference-Developed Guides and Documents tab:

http://www.foodprotect.org/media/guide/EmergencyActionPlanforRetailFoodEstablishments2008.pdf.

The time temperature combinations that allow for safe holding of food without impacting existing shelf life were extensively reviewed and incorporated into the new guidance document entitled Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition. The committee also gave consideration of where this document should be housed and referenced. This information is included in our recommendations below.

A number of other changes were made to the 2008 CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments document. Although most of the verbiage was carried over into the new Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition document, we did extensively reformat the document for a smoother and more logical flow. As a result of this, we did not create a redlined document showing changes made. Furthermore, we have included a list of significant changes made to the 2008 guidance document in our Committee report.

Public Health Significance

During times of natural disasters, crises and other events which interrupt the normal distribution and production of food, it may be necessary to have temporary alternative processes in place to provide food for the affected population. Many times when these adverse events occur food can be safely prepared and distributed utilizing procedures that differ from what is normally required in the Food Code.

The Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition document attached to the CFP issue entitled Report - Emergency Action Plan (EAP) Committee addresses items to consider in order to prepare for an emergency as well as to respond to and recover from an emergency. Often times, even if food cannot be prepared, food establishments can still safely sell some items with no risk to the public. Examples of items which could possibly be sold by food establishments during an emergency situation include canned foods, batteries, ice chests, flashlights and many other non-food items.

The Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition document provides assistance to industry and regulators by providing information that will help guide them when determining when a food establishment can remain open as well as what items may be prepared, sold and salvaged.

Regarding the request to develop an alternative emergency handwashing procedure, we initially decided to defer to the Hand Hygiene Committee which was working on this issue. We felt it would be best to let them create the procedure and then we would incorporate it into our guidance document. Since the Hand Hygiene Committee was unable to reach consensus on this issue we created our own procedure for emergency hand washing and included it into the guidance document. Our procedure does require the use of soap and water and discusses when and where handwashing facilities are needed and should be located.

Recommended Solution: The Conference recommends...

1. The new Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition document be accepted by the Conference for posting in both PDF and Word formats on the CFP website.

For actual document, see Issue titled: Report-Emergency Action Plan (EAP) Committee; attachment titled "Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition."

and

2. That a letter be sent to the FDA recommending the 2013 Food Code be amended to include reference in Annex 2 to the approved Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, Second Edition.

Word File