Food Service Inspectors Promoting Restaurant Worker Protection- a Pilot Assessment and Intervention Study

While conducting routine food safety inspections, Bay Area environmental health inspectors identified at least one occupational hazard in approximately 69% of the 261 food facilities inspected as part of a pilot project focusing on preventing work-related injuries. Over 200,000 such injuries occur in U.S. food establishments every year. Recognizing the unique access that environmental health inspectors have to the kitchen and other areas of food facilities when conducting periodic health inspections, UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) recruited two Bay Area counties to partner in the development of a pilot assessment and intervention project. LOHP worked with the inspectors of each county to develop distinct protocols for hazard identification and intervention. San Francisco opted for a limited, less time consuming version of the pilot which included a 5-item checklist of sentinel worker safety hazards for the assessment, and an intervention consisting of sharing a letter explaining the pilot effort and providing the facility operator with a brochure on restaurant worker safety. Contra Costa County developed a more time-intensive version including a 15-item checklist with an intervention that distributed the OSHA brochure, targeted safety tipsheets, on-the-spot education, and referral for trainings with LOHP.

San Francisco found that 60% of the restaurants lacked certain required labor signage and 13% of the facilities had ventilation issues. Contra Costa County staff found the most common sentinel hazard was the lack of required labor postings, slippery floors, inadequately stocked first aid kits, and absence of non-slip mats. Key challenges to the project included inspectors having to balance “core” food safety responsibilities with the voluntary pilot activities focused on worker safety. Local environmental health departments will likely need to adapt the effort for their own use – one protocol will not “fit all.” The pilot showed promise in collaborating with, as one inspector put it, “the perfect people to be communicating” about worker health and safety in food facilities. The presentation will expand on the findings of the sentinel hazard assessment, feedback from inspectors and operators on the interventions, the evaluation of the two protocols, and how they may be applicable in the participants’ jurisdictions.