Your chance of getting sick from restaurant food is determined largely by how it’s treated before it hits your plate — steps like keeping the food hot enough or cold enough between the time it’s prepared and when it’s served.
These and other precautions to help prevent food-borne outbreaks are emphasized in two-hour classes offered by the Snohomish Health District. Restaurant workers are required to take the classes within 14 days of being hired.
But even with nearly 22,000 people taking the classes last year, the public heath agency wasn’t able to keep up with demand.
So the health district is not just increasing the number of classes it offers this year. To keep pace with the large number of Spanish-speaking restaurant workers, it’s offering more classes in Spanish, too.
Two additional classes, one in English and one in Spanish, will be offered each week beginning in early June in Monroe and Lynnwood, said Rick Zahalka, a manager who oversees food safety issues for the health district
Additional classes may be offered in Everett in the fall if needed, he said.
“Our class sizes increase year after year and there’s no indication that we’re topping out,” Zahalka said.
Last year, the number of people attending the classes increased 10 percent over the number who attended in 2007.
And the 5,693 people attending the classes during the first three months this year is a 15 percent increase over the same period last year, he said.
The increase is occurring despite a weakened economy. “People have to eat, so we continue to have food sales,” Zahalka said.
The health district has found that with the increasing number of Spanish-speaking restaurant workers in the county, offering the classes in Spanish has increased food safety practices, he said.
The cost of the classes is covered by a $10 charge, which is set by the state.
Improper food preparation can cause potentially dangerous illnesses, such as E. coli outbreaks.
The health district first began offering the classes in Spanish in 2004. Four people showed up for that class, Zahalka said. Now those classes routinely have more than 50 people in them and sometimes people are turned away because of lack of space.
The health district also has written materials for food workers in Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Russian, he said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
More information
Call the health district at 425-339-5260 or go to snohd.org/snoMain/az.htm and click on “food worker cards.”
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