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Notre Dame hopes to follow IU's footsteps by doing own food safety inspections

South Bend Tribune - 9/22/2018

Sept. 22--SOUTH BEND -- If the University of Notre Dame follows in the footsteps of Indiana University by inspecting its own 40 food establishments, it would lift pressure off the St. Joseph County Health Department.

Notre Dame wants to run a program similar to the one run by IU, which has done its own food safety inspections for decades at its main campus in Bloomington and a handful of other campuses, including the one in South Bend.

Notre Dame wants to inspect its own dining halls, restaurants and other eateries.

The parties have returned to the negotiating table, however, after a deal allowing Notre Dame to do inspections was recently nixed by the health department because of concerns about rules that prohibited inspection reports from being publicly available.

But to ensure state law is followed, it appears Notre Dame could be willing to soon agree to a revised deal that would make such reports publicly available.

University spokesman Dennis Brown said there was a "misunderstanding about whether records can be kept private" and that Notre Dame "agreed last week to revise the agreement together."

As the department's health officer, Dr. Luis Galup oversees the food safety division, which currently has seven inspection officers. About 1,600 establishments need to be inspected countywide, along with vendors at temporary events.

Galup said that under the pact with Notre Dame, which has been discussed since January, the department would still be responsible for inspections at temporary events on campus. That includes the numerous concession stands at football games.

But the university's inspections of other establishments would take "some pressure" off the department, Galup said, which has been unable keep up with the recommended number of inspections countywide. This year it is on track to inspect all establishments only once, he said, but many of them should be inspected two or three times.

"We are short staffed," he said. "Two more inspectors are needed to keep up with the workload."

In 2017, the department's food safety officers conducted about 2,500 routine inspections -- down from 2,800 in 2016.

And this year through July, the department did 1,700 inspections -- down from the 1,400 over the same period in 2017.

'Would just overwhelm us'

Details about how Notre Dame would operate the inspection program remain unknown. An interview request with Chris Abayasinghe, senior director of campus dining, was declined on Thursday.

IU's food inspection program, however, sheds light on how such an arrangement might work.

IU's program was made possible by an agreement with the Indiana State Health Department, which oversees programs operated on state-owned property. It has similar agreements with Purdue University and Ball State University.

The state health department does not, however, have oversight over inspection agreements that are OK'd by local health departments and private institutions, such as Notre Dame.

Inspections at IU are done by its department of Environmental Health and Safety, which is led by Public Health Manager Graham McKeen.

McKeen conducts inspections with two other specialists at 160 registered food establishments across eight IU campuses. Dining halls, dorms, academic buildings, restaurants and Greek houses are inspected.

About 120 of the establishments are at the Bloomington campus, he said. The department also does inspections of concession stands at football games and other athletic events.

Last year, McKeen said, the staff did more than 400 inspections. Many establishments are inspected multiple times per year.

McKeen said his staff has fewer establishments to inspect than the Monroe County Health Department, which is responsible for the rest of the county. As a result, IU inspectors have the benefit of spending more time with establishments for training.

"We can have some really good relationships," he said.

The Monroe County Health Department had 710 permitted establishments last year that required inspections, said Sylvia Garrison, chief food sanitarian.

Garrison, who is among three staffers who do food inspections, said she is grateful they don't need to do inspections on IU's campus.

"If they added that to Monroe County's responsibilities," she said, "it would just overwhelm us."

Some say IU doing its own inspections is like "the fox guarding the henhouse," she said, but the university does a good job enforcing standards.

IU is "still responsible to the state health department and has its code to inspect and enforce," Garrison said.

'More persnickety'

It's unclear if Notre Dame's inspection program would follow guidelines from the state health department that are used by IU.

Notre Dame's website states that it follows food safety standards from the "ServSafe" program operated by the National Restaurant Association.

The university also operates "an extensive in-house food safety program" that "monitors every step of food preparation," the website states, and it has a food safety manager who "oversees the safety and sanitation of all our operations."

It also states that "regular inspections are conducted -- both internally and by an independent body -- to ensure our standards are maintained."

Galup said that a former longtime food inspector for the health department, Kevin Harrington, left in 2017 to take a food safety job at Notre Dame. He said Harrington oversees inspections at Notre Dame, and he is confident in his ability.

"If anything, he may be more persnickety than even our own inspectors," Galup told health officials at a recent meeting.

tbooker@sbtinfo.com

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@Tbooker24

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