Restaurants, food trucks and purveyors of Sonoran hot dogs can expect new safety regulations beginning next month.
On Tuesday, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a raft of changes to consumer health and food safety codes, along with a new schedule of inspection fees.
Supervisor Ally Miller voted against the changes, saying the fee increases would be too much for some restaurants to handle.
โMy biggest concern is the fee increases, which are huge,โ Miller said.
For most food service establishments, annual inspection fees will increase from the current rate of $144 to $345 by 2020.
Those and other new fee schedules are aimed at making the Health Departmentโs consumer health and food safety division self-funding, no longer needing support from other budget areas.
The division oversees health and safety regulations governing restaurants, hotels, school facilities, aquatic centers, mobile homes, campgrounds and childrenโs camps.
Its budget for the current budget cycle is $4.3 million. Fees and service charges are estimated to bring in $1.7 million.
The fee schedule was developed out of a two-year planning process that involved county finance and food industry representatives.
โIn the long term, it really will help our restaurants,โ said Chianne Hewer, with the Phoenix-based Arizona Restaurant Association.
Hewer said the association was concerned about the fee increases but supports the goal of the consumer health and food safety division becoming self-sufficient.
In addition to the fee schedule, the board approved adoption of the most recent U.S. Food and Drug Administrationโs food safety standard, updated in 2013.
The county previously had worked under the FDA 1999 standard.
Hewer said Maricopa County already has adopted the updated standard.
โWe would advocate that all the counties adopt the 2013 FDA food safety standards,โ she said. โWeโre actually protecting ourselves and our industry.โ
The new standards address food cooking and storage temperatures to minimize the risks of foodborne illness.
The code revisions also address the proliferation of food trucks and other itinerant and temporary food service establishments.
The food-truck regulations include requirements that a door or wall separate food preparation areas from a truckโs cab, that operators conduct food preparation work at an approved commissary and that GPS devices be permanently affixed to food trucks.
In a uniquely Tucson regulation, the new code requires that bacon-wrapped hot dogs, the quintessential ingredient of a Sonoran dog, be wrapped with bacon at the commissary facility.
The rule is geared toward food carts with limited production capacity, said David Ludwig, program manager with the Health Departmentโs food safety division.
โThe commissary has to be a place where they can prepare food and dump waste,โ Ludwig said, adding the department wants to be able to track whether food trucks are following regulations.
He also said the GPS requirement for food trucks will not be enforced immediately. Rather, it will be phased in as technologies adapt.
Deputy Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said the new regulations are aimed at increasing public safety, not at making things difficult for the industry.
โWe donโt want to be punitive,โ Lesher said.
The new code also recognizes pet-friendly food establishments.
Now restaurants wonโt need a variance to allow pets. Pets still wonโt be allowed inside restaurants but the code permits restaurants to have pet-friendly areas outdoors.
The new regulations take effect April 1.
The Health Department division oversees nearly 8,000 permits each year and conducts more than 16,000 inspections each year.
The department issued 395 new food service permits in 2015. The new issuances cover new restaurants, permits required for change of ownership, those for additional service areas in existing businesses, and other permits. The figure does not include food truck permits.
