DALTON, Mass. — Food establishments can anticipate a change to their food establishment permit fees. 

 

The board of health approved a new permitting system that shifts away from a flat fee to a categorized system that uses the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's risk-based food establishment categories. 

 

Rather than having an "arbitrary" flat price structure that focuses on the specific type of business, number of seats, square footage, and other factors, the new system categorizes establishments based on a risk assessment, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Health Agent Jazu Stine said. 

 

Under this new system, an establishment's risk level category dictates how many times a year they need to be inspected, he said. 

 

The more inspections needed, the higher the permit fee should be to cover the cost of doing Inspections, Stine's proposal said. 

 

"[We're] trying not to lose money by doing a lot of inspections that you're not really getting paid for,"Board member James "Jimbo" Doucette said. 

 

"Unfortunately, I mean, I think we can all attest to just like everything in the world is getting rapidly more expensive in the past few years," Stine added.