2008 Model Practice Application (Public)

Health Officers Award of Excellence

Jefferson County Department of Health/Alabama Public Health Area 4

The Health Officers Award of Excellence is an award created by the Jefferson County Department of Health to reward food establishments that excel in four categories: 1) The food establishment must have an extensive selection of healthy food choices as identified by the department’s nutritionist; 2) The food establishment must be 100% smoke-free; 3) All food handlers working at the food establishment must have attended the department's food handler training class; 4) The food establishment must have scored 99 or higher on all food establishment safety/sanitation inspections for the previous year. The award is given each year during an awards ceremony as a part of Public Health Week activities. The award is given only to the “best of the best” and has become a much coveted award. Local news organizations cover the awards event and the winners are given a lot of local publicity. The award is a very nice plaque that highlights the significance of the award. The goal is to encourage, through a positive reward, the type of behavior in food establishments that promotes good public health practice.

Public health issues addressed are: Healthy menu choices Smoke free food establishments Trained food handlers Excellent food safety and sanitation These items represent important issues in the food industry for the promotion of good public health. Often the public health approach is in terms of negative outcomes for the food establishments. In terms of deductions from their food establishment scores, notices of violation, or even closure of their establishment. All these result in negative publicity as the local news media reports food establishment scores. The award is intended to reward good public health practice by the food industry and to bring good publicity to those food establishments that exceed public health expectations.

The department promotes this award as a positive outcome for food establishments that exceed public health expectations. The food establishments have come to covet this award and work very hard to qualify.

The award was first implemented in 2005. Each year 3-6 restaurants are selected based upon the four categories listed above. There is no minimum or maximum number of food establishments selected, the number is determined by those that meet the criteria. Start up cost is low. The cost of the plaques is the only real expense. We chose to spend around $50 per plaque to reflect that this is a quality award that should be coveted by the food industry. There is staff time that is required to determine the number of food establishments that qualify. The department expends close to 100 staff hours determining the winners. The department funds this project and as I stated above the cost is relatively low, less than $1000.

Prior to Public Health Week the department runs a computer program to select the food establishments that have scored 99 or above on all food establishment inspections for the previous year. For the food establishments that make this first cut, we have a department nutritionist to review their menu options to determine if they have healthy menu options. We further check to make sure that all employees have attended the department’s food handler training class and finally we check to make sure that they are 100% smoke free. The time frame for completing these tasks is done during the months of February and March. Plaques are ordered and must be ready by Public Health Week.

This practice is well established in the community and there would be many upset food establishment owners if the practice was stopped. The unique thing about this award is the low dollar cost and high return in terms of promoting good public health and good public relations.

The award has become much coveted among food establishments. The award has given the department a much needed public relations boost, that we are not only about deductions and notice of violation. The publicity each year gives the department an opportunity to talk about issues of healthy food choices, avoiding smoking and secondhand smoke, training of food handlers, and good sanitation practices.