Summary

In the State of Florida, food establishments, such as food processing plants, supermarkets, convenience stores, and food storage and distribution points, must adhere to the provisions of the Florida Food Safety Act (Chapter 500, Florida Statutes). Compliance with the Act is ensured, in part, through the food establishment inspection activities of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Our audit, which focused on the inspection activities of the Department’s Division of Food Safety, identified improvements that need to be made in the following areas:

• The Division did not always conduct food establishment inspections as frequently as required by Department guidelines. Absent the conduct of inspections at established, reasonably frequent intervals, violations of food safety standards may not be subject to timely detection and resolution.

• Current Department policies and procedures defining relationships that constitute conflicts of interest for Department employees, including those of the Division of Food Safety, do not address the impact of familial or other close personal relationships. The Department’s policies and procedures should be amended to address the impact of these types of relationships.

• The Department should exercise its newly granted authority and implement procedures leading to the collection of fees to recover the costs of reinspections and other compliance enforcement activities, which represent a significant percentage of inspector workload.

• The Department should enhance the effectiveness of the compliance enforcement function by maintaining and publishing a written schedule showing for each potential violation the minimum fine amount that may be assessed. Written guidelines promote the consistent assessment of fines and can serve as a deterrent to noncompliance with the Food Safety Act.

• Department policies that allow food establishment inspectors to collect annual permit fees during inspection visits introduced significant risks into the collections process. However, control procedures sufficient to adequately address these risks had not been adopted.

The automated inspection system supporting the Division’s permitting and inspection activities has significant operational limitations. Management indicated that the Department is currently in the process of developing an Electronic Inspection System to replace the current system.

The Commissioner of Agriculture's written response to the audit findings and recommendations in audit report No. 02-046 can be viewed as a part of the complete report filed on this Auditor General web site.