Food Safety Magazine, October/November 2010

conducting inspections at foodservice establishments in Johnson County. These EHS conduct a variety of inspection activities that include routine, follow-up, complaint, courtesy, disaster, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), modified complaints, plan review and FBI investigations.

A Johnson County EHS developed a survey with the input of a biostatistician, public health consultant and a food inspector with 25 years of experience, and administered the survey to the other six EHS. The 32 survey items assessed current workload, the inspection process, communication efforts, training, compli-ance/enforcement actions and relationship between EHS and dining establishments. Answers were reported on a five-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree,” or from “Very Dissatisfied” to “Very Satisfied,” depending on the item.

Focus Group Participants and Instrument

Foodservice employees were recruited randomly for focus groups from among

the pool of restaurant employees in Johnson County. Recruitment occurred through letters, emails, telephone calls and onsite requests. Restaurateurs were asked to participate voluntarily and were informed that the purpose of the focus groups was to obtain their opinions and suggestions on services, barriers and ways of creating partnerships. The final pool of 21 focus group participants included three kitchen managers, one chef, two lead preparation workers, nine general managers, two district managers, two establishment owners, one Director of Operations and one whose position was not reported.

A list of discussion topics was developed by the researchers and was partially influenced by responses from the above-mentioned EHS surveys to ensure that potential areas of convergent or divergent opinions were addressed (Table 1). Common issues such as services provided, educational material, enforcement actions and barriers faced were placed on both the survey and focus group questionnaire.

Procedures

The survey was administered to six Johnson County EHS. Respondents were given a copy of the survey, then asked to complete it in a private room and place it in an unmarked collection envelope for the research team. After all six respondents completed the survey, responses were collected and descriptive statistics analyzed.

Three focus group meetings with 21 participants were conducted at the JCED in Olathe, KS. Each focus group lasted approximately 1.5 hours. Participants engaged in an open discussion of questions posed by a group moderator. Topics discussed by participants included: 1) services provided by Johnson County EHS/food inspectors; 2) materials, training and educational tools provided by EHS; 3) enforcement and compliance actions taken when food code violations exist; 4) barriers to food safety within the industry; and 5) ways to create positive partnerships with EHS. Items for discussion were chosen based upon their direct influence on the rap-

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