Winning approval for a new food code with updated safety measures, and working with the restaurant industry “because our goal isn’t to shut places down,” are among priorities facing the chief of the Pima County Health Department’s inspections team.
David Ludwig and his division hope to take the new code to the Board of Supervisors soon. He says it includes sharply higher inspection fees in some cases, but also incentives for restaurants to save money by self-inspecting, eliminating trans fats, donating unused food to food banks, and other steps.
Ludwig is entering his second year as program manager of the Health Department’s Consumer Health and Food Safety division. He sat down with the Star to talk about his plans to reduce foodborne illness while leading the division to recouping 100 percent of its costs; to describe which parts of the new code may be controversial or popular with restaurants; and to detail his credentials.
Q: What have some of your priorities been here?
A: They gave me some things on my plate that they wanted taken care of right away. I was basically told to just move things forward. They told me they wanted a new food code in the near future, as well as a new general health code, which includes all the things we regulate, such as motels, hotels and trailer parks. I also have staff that work with mosquito surveillance and complaints for bedbugs and cockroaches.
Moving down from (my former) staff of 125 in Maricopa County to 32 people here, it’s been a change. We also want to upgrade the way we do inspections, meaning getting some computers into the field. I’ve done all that before. I computerized Maricopa back in 1996.
They also told me to bring the staff back together as a team, and make sure we’re giving them the backing they need to go out there and do a good job, to be fair, to be consistent.
They also wanted me to really work with the industry, because our goal isn’t to shut places down. I came from a restaurant family. I’ve been there and I know running a restaurant is one of the hardest things to do. We want to educate operators, let them know what they need to correct and let them tell us how they’re going to correct it. If we do that, it’s safer for everyone, and that’s what we’re looking for.
Q: What are your goals in the upcoming year?
A: We’re looking at a new food code. Right now, the state of Arizona has a 2001 food code, which is basically the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 1999 code). Think back to 1999 and how much has changed, and in the foodborne illness world, a lot has changed. The state has told the counties that we can adopt new codes. I adopted the FDA’s 2009 code in Maricopa County, and several counties in the state have updated to 2013, and we’re in 1999. Adopting a new code is also beneficial to the operators and there are many new industry-friendly guidelines.
The new proposed food code is posted on our website; so are the proposed changes to the food code, health provisions and fees. We’re hoping to go before the Board of Supervisors with the proposal this month.
Q: What do you think the public response will be?
A: The fees could be the most controversial part. I know no one wants to pay more, but when I did the fees, they’re actual numbers. I went through 75,000 rows of data and pulled out times for inspections, reinspections, enforcements and put in that data to figure out costs. It boils down to the average inspection times, number of times a year it has to be inspected and what the staffing requirements are. Not only are we recouping inspector time, but also overhead and staff time.
Some fees actually went down, because those are quick inspections, and others went up a lot. But we’re coming up short in recouping our costs, and some of the money is coming from the general fund. We’re recommending to the Board of Supervisors, 100 percent cost recovery on our end and they can better utilize (county) general fund money. How fast we’ll recoup money, I don’t know.
Q: Are there incentives for operators in the proposed fees?
A: They can reduce their fees by 25 percent if they develop a managerial performance plan and have managerial control. Basically self-inspecting, and keeping charts of temperatures. If they have written procedures in place, they can get 10 percent off their annual fee.
We’re also looking at making Pima County healthier, so if they have a menu board with the calories up there, it’s 5 percent off. Eliminate trans fats in your restaurants — which the FDA is going to require in three years — that’s a 5 percent discount.
The last 5 percent is if they make food donations of unused product and work with an area food bank. The Board of Health wanted us to do something with the food banks and not having this food going into the landfill when we have hungry people.
The operators control 25 percent of their fee. The cost to us is the same as the original fee, so how are we going to do that if we’re losing 25 percent of our costs? We need to be more efficient. Making sure our staff is properly trained, getting computers into the field.
Q: What is your background?
A: I’ve been doing regulatory work for over 35 years, and started back in Illinois as a health inspector, straight out of college. I got my master’s degree in public health while I was working in Skokie as the environmental health director. ... I landed in Maricopa County in 1991 and stayed there for 22½ years before I retired.
Q: What brought you to the Pima County Health Department?
A: After I retired, I went on to consult nationally with environmental health programs about how to improve their food safety programs, as well as consulting with restaurants. But it just wasn’t my cup of tea. ... Francisco Garcia, the director of the health department, is one of the reasons I came down here. ... I knew he has good, innovative thoughts and directions and I wanted to be a part of that.
