Harrison County Ordinance 2004-16
An ordinance of the Harrison County Health Board creating a Placard System.
The purpose of this ordinance is to safeguard public health and assure that food provided to consumers is safe, unadulterated, and honestly presented. It establishes a placard system for inspection results to be posted in a location conspicuous to the public.
Article 1. Issuance and Posting of Placard
Section 1. The Board of Health shall issue, or cause to be issued, an inspection results placard at the time of each inspection of a food service establishment within its jurisdiction. The placard shall show the name and address of the foodservice establishment for which it is issued, shall be approximately 8 ½ inches by 11 inches in size, and shall contain, in summary, fashion, the results of the most recent Inspection Report and the Rating Score recorded therein, for the particular foodservice establishment.
Section 2. Each food service establishment shall post on the customer entrance doors inside the establishment, in a location conspicuous to the public, the results placard issued by the Health Department. The Health Officer or his designee shall have the authority and responsibility for establishing the location of the placard, and for issuing the placard at the time of each inspection of a food service establishment where an Inspection Report is completed.
Section 3. The placard shall remain the property of the Harrison County Health Department. No person shall move, remove, alter, deface, or conceal from public view the placard posted pursuant to this regulation, or the food service establishment shall be fined $50.00 for each day the placard is unavailable for public viewing.
Article 2. Inspections
Section 1. Each food service establishment shall be subject to routine (unannounced) inspections and, if necessary, scheduled re-inspections.
Section 2. A food service establishment that meets or exceeds minimum standards (no uncorrected critical violations) shall post the inspection report placard until the next routine inspection.
Section 3. A food service establishment that fails to meet minimum standards by receiving uncorrected critical violations shall post the inspection results placard for a period of at least seven (7) consecutive days. A scheduled reinspection shall be made after ten (10) working days. If in the opinion of the inspector, a new inspection results placard would more accurately report to the public the conditions of the establishment upon reinspection, then a new inspection results placard may be prepared and posted.
Section 4. If upon any reinspection, the results of the inspection of the establishment are reported to be no uncorrected critical violations or higher, a new inspection results placard shall be posted for the establishment, provided such posting is not in conflict with any section of this Ordinance.
Article 7. ABC Placards
"A" Placard: (Very Good). Acknowledges safe food handling practices and designates a facility as meeting all health code requirements without critical violations. An "A" placard shall be given when there are no critical violations and the overall score is between 93 and 100%. An "A" placard may only be given during an unannounced inspection. The "A" placard shall remain posted until the next routine inspection. Any facility that obtains an "A" level score, but has a fail/pass* history** will not earn an "A" card until two successive "A" level scores are attained.
"B" Placard: (Passed). Acknowledges a food facility has met minimum requirements but may have had a critical violation that was corrected during the inspection. The overall score is between 85 and 92%. The "B" placard shall remain posted until the next routine inspection.
"C" Placard: (Poor). Indicates that a food service facility has failed to meet minimum requirements. This will include a score of 84% and below and may include critical violations that are not immediately correctable. The "C" placard shall be placed for a minimum of seven (7) days. A second (scheduled) follow-up inspection will be conducted after ten (10) business days and the applicable placard posted. A facility that requests a second (scheduled) inspection to raise its score from a "C" may obtain a score of "B", but not "A". An "A" score may only be obtained during an unannounced, surprise inspection.
If a facility requests a third inspection, a fee of one hundred dollars ($100) will be charged to that facility. The third inspection will not be conducted until the facility pays the $100 reinspection fee to the clerk at the health department.
* Fail/pass history - A record indicating that a facility routinely fails the regular unannounced inspection and passes a scheduled follow-up inspection. A fail/pass history indicates that concern for public health is not paramount within the facility, and the facility does not maintain stringent health and sanitation standards. Posting an "A" placard within this facility, based on attaining an "A" level score on the scheduled follow-up inspection, would not accurately reflect the public health risk.
** A record of the foodservice facility's inspection scores. A facility history will be designated as the two (2) most recent regular inspection scores.
This ordinance was passed and adopted by the Harrison County Board of Health on the 3rd day of November 2004.
This ordinance (2004 - 16) was passed and adopted by the Commissioners of Harrison County, State of Indiana, on this 15th day of November 2004.