[Durham INC] unregulated food vendors

[RW Pickle]

For Immediate Release                                                     
                   Date: 10/19/10

Contact: Dawn Dudley                                                      
                 Phone: 560-0008/Fax: 560-0020

                                                                                                                E-mail:
ddudley at durhamcountync.gov



Health Department Implements Illegal Food Vendor Enforcement Initiative
They say the Police Dept. will "periodically" identify unregulated food
vendors and enforce these rules. Maybe we all could help them locate them 
by calling some easily remembered phone number like 560-FOOD or a special
One Call operation to handle the load. Punishment sounds like a slap on
the wrist (or in foodie terms, it has no meat).

Press Release from Durham County.

Durham, NC ¯ The Environmental Health Division of the Durham County Health
Department has worked with Durham City officials and the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government to improve enforcement
of rules governing food service establishments in Durham.  In the near
future, the Environmental Health Division will work with the Durham Police
Department (DPD) to periodically identify unpermitted food vendors in
Durham and inform them of the state rules for regulating food sales.

Upon request from the Environmental Health Division, the DPD will issue
citations to illegal food vendors that are non-compliant.  The citation is
a Class 1 misdemeanor and will require a court appearance on the charge of
operating a food service establishment without a food service permit.

All permitted food vendors operate under State rules governing the
sanitation of food service establishments. Permitted vendors are inspected
according to the State rules. Durham County Environmental Health’s Illegal
Food Vendor Enforcement Initiative is designed to increase permitting
compliance among food vendors and better ensure a safe food supply for
Durham residents.

Residents that order food from any establishment, such as a caterer, a
mobile food unit or a non-profit group, have the right to ask to see the
food vendor’s food service establishment permit or non-profit exemption
letter.  If the vendor cannot produce a permit or exemption letter, the
vendor is may be operating illegally.

“Anyone interested in operating a food service, catering business, mobile
food unit, or push cart should take the necessary steps to obtain the
proper food service permit and business licenses,” said Robert Brown,
environmental health director for the Durham County Health Department. 
“It is the law.”

For more information about the Illegal Food Vendor Enforcement Initiative,
contact the Durham County’s Environmental Health Division at (919)
560-7800, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.