Fairfax County plans to drop health inspections at convenience stores and gas stations in what officials say is an effort to redirect scrutiny to higher-risk establishments.
If approved at the next Board of Supervisors meeting, the initiative would leave the businesses with only a single yearly inspection from the state, said Tom Crow, the county’s director of environmental health.
He said he has “no reason to believe” that the quality of inspection is going to change under the new policy, which has a public hearing set for July 10. “We haven’t had any cases of food-borne illnesses in any of these establishments in the last two years,” he said.
The line between convenience store and restaurant, however, has blurred in recent years. For example, Sheetz, which serves fries, hamburgers, subs and breakfast sandwiches, is still considered a convenience store, according to Crow.
State records indicate that recent convenience store inspections in Fairfax County netted numerous “critical violations,” the designation for violations more likely to cause food contamination or illness. At one store, inspected in late June, inspectors found that “ready to eat” food was improperly stored and dated, and that hot dogs, pizza and chicken were stored at improperly-low temperature. In Fiscal 2005, inspectors found 523 critical violations at convenience stores and 12,763 at full-service restaurants. Many of those violations, however, were corrected at the time of inspection, said Crow.
He said the change in county inspections is part of a new set of guidelines by the Food and Drug Administration that call for inspectors to focus their efforts on the businesses that pose the highest risk. The change would go into effect Sept. 1.
