WHEREAS the Village of Alert Bay has a long tradition of tournaments and festivals which have traditionally included street vendors selling locally prepared food; AND WHEREAS there has never been a case of food borne illness associated with the consumption of the food from these street vendors; AND WHEREAS the Vancouver Island Health Authority is taking enforcement action against street vendors and sellers and providers of homemade food at community events: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM request that all health authorities develop reasonable policies that will allow the sale and provision of foods prepared in non-commercial kitchens and which are not cost prohibitive or otherwise prohibitively onerous to the average citizen.
Ministry of Health In April 2011, a guideline was developed that provides clear direction on the preparation of lower risk foods in the home, and the conditions for sale of lower risk food at temporary food markets. The Guideline for the Sale of Foods at Temporary Food Markets was prepared by the BC Centre for Disease Control BCCDC in collaboration with the ministries of Health and Agriculture, the five regional health authorities, and the BC Association of Farmers Markets. These guidelines aim to protect the public by ensuring that food prepared at home which is offered for sale at temporary food markets is limited to lower risk foods. Environmental Health Officers EHOs retain discretion to remove any food sold at a temporary food market considered to be a health hazard as defined in Section 1 of the Public Health Act, or is contaminated as per Section 3 of the Food Safety Act. An Environmental Health Risk Management Graduated Enforcement Policy Framework is in place to guide EHOs. This graduated enforcement framework sometimes referred to as Progressive Enforcement provides a suite of progressively escalating enforcement actions that may be used to eliminate, reduce or mitigate risks andor to ensure compliance with legislative and policy provisions that are in place to protect the health and safety of the public. Such actions begin with education about food safety and regulatory requirements and progress through warnings, orders to stop illegal activities, ticketing, and in extreme circumstances, prosecution under food safety legislation. It is extremely difficult for a consumer to determine if food products are contaminated with dangerous pathogens; indeed, even food products with a normal appearance can contain pathogenic bacteria with the potential to cause human illness. Consuming contaminated food may result in mild illness, long-lasting serious disease, or even death, particularly among vulnerable populations including young children, immune-compromised individuals, seniors, and pregnant women. Often food borne illness goes unreported or is under-reported, as symptoms can take 1 to 18 hours, or even up to 3 days, from the time of consumption to manifest. Ensuring that food products sold to the public are safe for human consumption is an important goal for the Province.
Fraser Health We acknowledge the importance of fundraising events to local communities and have asked staffs to use a reasonable and collaborative approach when working with charity, church and community groups on proposed food events. Many of these food events involve only the distribution andor sale of non-potentially hazardous foods which do not require a permit to operate. The five BC health authorities use the Temporary Market Guideline in the review of this type of events. This type of food events normally receives minimal oversight from us and are for the most part self-regulating. Food events where potentially hazardous foods are prepared, distributed or sold to the public are subject to the requirements of the BC Food Premises Regulation. While we do not have the authority to exempt these events from the regulation, the regulation is outcomeperformance based and allows us to interpret and apply the regulatory provisions using a risk based framework. We use a Temporary Food Events Guideline to guide our staffs, and the current approval process is consistent across all health authorities. We periodically review our guideline with that of the other health authorities and the direction provide by the Ministry of Health to ensure and promote consistency. We have issued over 2,600 special food event permits in 20102011. Our staffs have worked effectively with many communities to find reasonable and cost effective solutions to ensure the success of these event, some having attendance in excess of 100,000. We are always willing and prepared to meet and discuss issues or concerns local governments might have regarding community food events and to collaboratively identify strategies that will meet the communitys needs while at the same time ensuring food safety. Vancouver Coastal Health In Vancouver Coastal Health VCH we acknowledge the importance of local charitable and fundraising events to communities and have asked staff to work closely with charity, church, and community groups to ensure that events proceed under reasonable and appropriate levels of oversight. However, while our involvement is mostly limited to providing food safety information we also recognized that markets, church dinners and other community-based events featuring food are not inherently safer or more dangerous than any other food service establishments. A study by the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health entitled: ChurchCommunity Suppers: What is the Evidence for Risk of Foodborne Illness? concluded that 3 to 16 of foodborne illness outbreaks investigated by public health are associated with community events including church suppers, fairs, potlucks, picnics etc. Poor food handling practices in the home and at the site where the food was prepared and served were implicated in most outbreaks. A more recent survey conducted in Fraser Health and VCH concluded that the majority of residents do not use thermometers to verify internal food temperatures and that more than one third of the respondents indicated that they prepare foods while ill. Current public healthy legislation uses outcomeperformance based language to enable appropriate discretionary regulatory approaches. Health authorities are expected to exercise risk based flexibility and common sense in the application of the legislation in our communities. The present permit application process is consistent across Health Authorities and allows for a quick health risk assessment and feedback, determines the necessity for a food permit and identifies optional ways of arriving at the desired food safety outcome. Rather than requesting health authorities to create new policies, the preferred option would be for local governments to sit down with regional health authorities and establish a dialogue that will help to satisfy community needs but with also ensure public health safety. We would be pleased to do so for local governments within our jurisdiction.