Olney PD to do food service inspections

Olney Enterprise
Wed, 09/28/2022 - 12:00am
BY: GINA KEATING | EDITOR

The Olney City Council approved an ordinance at their Sept. 12 meeting that puts the Olney Police Department in charge of twice-yearly inspections of food service establishments and mandatory annual inspections of the school and hospital cafeterias. The city assumed responsibility for the inspections and agreed to fund training for two Olney Police officers to become certified food inspectors after the Texas Department of State Health Services regional office in Abilene informed local officials that they were understaffed and might not be able to inspect the school cafeteria this year, Olney Police Detective Dustin Hudson said. Under state law, the school cafeteria must be inspected before classes are allowed to begin, he said. State law also requires that businesses that serve food to the public be inspected every six months, but state inspectors were only able to perform inspections in Olney about every 18 months to two years and were not able to investigate health code complaints in a timely manner, Detective Hudson said.

Detective Hudson, Officer Joe Logan, and Chief Dan Birbeck will undergo training to become certified health inspectors, and will make appointments with local establishments that serve food to the public to catch them up on their inspections, Chief Birbeck said.

“They’ll need to have a certificate before they go into business, similar to occupancy licensing,” he said. “We’ll make sure everybody is licensed to handle food and the facility is appropriate for food handling in terms of food storage, temperature, water, and all the requirements to be licensed.”

The new Olney ordinance is based on a measure passed by the city of Graham, which had similar problems keeping food service inspections up to date, Detective Hudson said. “It’s a common practice with municipalities to have their own health inspectors,” he said. “There’s one in Seymour who is in the public works department. Ultimately, our job is protecting our citizens.”