Dalton Board of Health Updates Food Permit Fee System
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.
The four tiers range low-risk operations with limited or no time and temperature control for safety (TCS) food preparation to high risk.
The tiers are as follows:
- Tier 1: low-risk establishments have a fee of $150. This includes businesses that sell or prepare mostly pre-packaged or non-TCS foods, with limited heating and no cooling of TCS foods. It also includes Tier 2 businesses that have demonstrated a consistent history of effectively managing foodborne illness risks.
- Tier 2: most food-service establishments have a fee of $200. This includes establishments with immediate food service and limited complex TCS preparation, as well as qualifying Tier 3 businesses with proven food-safety controls and newly permitted Tier 1 establishments.
- Tier 3: full-service restaurants have a fee of $300. This includes restaurants with extensive menus that handle raw ingredients and many TCS foods, requiring complex preparation such as cooking, cooling, reheating, and hot or cold holding as well as qualifying Tier 4 businesses with proven food-safety controls and newly permitted Tier 2 establishments.
- Tier 4: has a fee of $400 and includes establishments serving highly susceptible populations, conducting high-risk, hazard analysis critical control point, or specialized processes, as well as businesses that would otherwise be listed as tier 3 but has a history of risk factor violations.
Tags: board of health, inspections office,
