Food Safety

The food safety program is operated under delegation from the Arizona Department of Health Services. Depending on the type of food facility, an inspection takes place between once and twice per year. All food establishments are subject to inspection and pay an annual permit fee to the Environmental Health Division (EHD). Food establishments fall under the Arizona Food Code.  

During inspection of the food establishments the inspectors look for violations and classify them as “critical” and “non-critical”. A critical violation is one that may quickly lead to food borne illness. A non-critical violation is one that must be corrected in order to comply with the Arizona Food Code, but may not lead to one becoming sick in a short period of time. The inspection report consists of 27 critical violation categories. During the inspection, the assigned inspector marks which category has a violation and instructs the operator to correct the violation within a specified amount of time. The establishment is then issued a rating card. The ratings are “Excellent”, “Satisfactory”, “Needs Improvement” and “Unacceptable”.

An Excellent rating indicates that the establishment did not have any critical violations at the time of inspection.

A Satisfactory rating indicates the inspector did find critical violations, but the operator was able to correct the violations before the inspector left the facility.

A Needs Improvement rating is given when critical violations are found in an establishment but they are not able to be corrected right away.

An Unacceptable rating is when the establishment needs to be closed due to gross and insanitary conditions.
Establishments are required to post their current rating where the public is able to view it.

Food Program Information and Links

• Hand Washing Information
• FDA Model Food Code
• Mohave County Food Code

Food Safety Newsletters

• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019

Food Borne Illness

Chances are, you've had a food borne illness and you probably didn't go to the doctor.  What made you sick was a bacteria, virus or toxin in the food.

It's estimated that up to 76 million people get a food borne illness each year.  Because people don't go to the doctor for mild symptoms, the actual number of illnesses can't be known.  Food borne illness is most dangerous for the very young, the very old, and those whose immune systems are weak.

Food borne diseases

•  Botulism
•  Campylobacteriosis 
•  Cryptosporidiosis
•  E. coli
•  Hepatitis (all variations)
•  Norovirus
•  Salmonella
•  Shigellosis
•  Typhoid Fever
•  Vibriosis
•  Yersiniosis
   

Food safety fact sheets

Many food borne illnesses come from home kitchens and from how take out or leftover foods are handled.  Learn more about what you can do at home and at work to prevent food borne illness by reading the following fact sheets.

• Buffet dining 
• Cooking turkey
• Eggs 
• Correct dishwashing method 
• Handwashing 
• Power failure - how to protect foods 
• Safety after a power failure or natural disaster 
• Fight BAC!  Quick tips for food safety 
• Summer food safety tips 
• Food Safety While Hiking, Camping, and Boating
• BBQ food safety 
• Pasteurized juice 

All food borne illness information is general in nature and is not intended to be used as a substitute for appropriate professional advice.

Arizona Food Safety and Environmental Services website can be found here.