The County of Los Angeles Environmental Health Division protects, maintains and improves the quality of the environment to promote good public health. This mission is accomplished through the enforcement of public health laws and educational activities. One of the areas of this enforcement and education activities is food.
Food safety in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles is the responsibility of Environmental Health's Food Inspection Program in partnership with the food industry. Jointly, we are responsible for ensuring that the community is provided with safe food and reducing the potential for foodborne illness and the spread of communicable disease. To this end, Environmental Health has assembled a series of manuals to assist the food establishment operator in understanding the inspection process, developing a clearer understanding of good food handling practices, identifying areas within their operation that have the greatest potential for the spread of foodborne illness, and enhancing safeguards that minimize the risk associated with the food supply.
Improving the food service operator's understanding of the public health significance of the regulations associated with food is of paramount importance to Environmental Health. This is one of a series of manuals that were developed to provide operators with a basic understanding of the principles of public health. Application of the principles set forth in these online manuals will assist the operator in determining the current status of their operation and provide the tools necessary to improve all aspects of food storage, handling, preparation, transportation and service.
Environmental Health is committed to providing the highest quality of service to both industry and the community. This commitment extends to improving public health services in all areas of environmental health. We look forward to developing further alliances to promote good public health.
Arturo Aguirre, Deputy
Environmental Health
Housing Inspection Bureau