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>> PEGGY PICO: Here with more on the food truck inspections is my guest, Heather Buonomo,
environmental specialist for the county. Thanks for being here, your department has
always done inspections of food trucks so how do you think this grading system will
improve public safety or will it? >> It absolutely will.
Industry and our department is very excited about implementing it because it's going to
give the consumers, the customers, the ability to make an educated choice for their dining
decisions. >> PEGGY PICO: How many are we talking about
here in the county and how will these inspections be done?
>> There are about 550 trucks that cook food and they're going to have two inspections
annually, and we're going to be actually finding them out in the field while doing business
to conduct one of their inspections. >> PEGGY PICO: So they won't know ahead of
time, you just show up? >> Typically one inspection is a recertificate
fakes inspection where they know we're coming and the other is unannounced in the field.
>> PEGGY PICO: We're talking about more than 500, that's a lot, a lot of those have gone
gourmet, I've seen them. Does that change anything?
>> About 50 of our trucks here in San Diego are gourmet and what we find is that they
have a little more of a complex menu, they're doing more complex cooking processes.
That does require a little more time on the end of the inspector to revalue for the food
safety portion. >> PEGGY PICO: And they are cooking inside
the truck not ice cream trucks? >> Not anything that is prepackaged but truck
and carts where they have open food and cook and prepare.
>> PEGGY PICO: Who pays for these and how much do they cast?
>> The cost I'm not sure about but all of the permanent fees are whatÊ permit fees
pay for the inspections. >> Would it be different for different trucks?
>> It's based on risk so a full service food truck that is cook and go preparing food,
they have more risk for public safety, so the inspection takes longer to go through
and evaluate the food, whereas a push cart that just has ice cream there is not as much
that goes into that inspection. >> PEGGY PICO: How are food born illnesses
tracked when it comes to restaurants and my follow up is will this grading system make
it easier to do the same for trucks? >> We do have a food born illness program
and we work with the Department of Health and human services agency to track those in
the county of San Diego and we can do that for a brick and mortar restaurant or a food
truck. The consumers will have the ability to track
what truck they're eating at new, they're going to be paying attention to the type of
truck, the letter grade and that will just help our system, help improve it a little
bit. >> PEGGY PICO: So if something happens, it
will be easier to trace, "I hate at that place that had a C or B rating"?
Something like that? >> Yeah and we have numbers on our grade cards
now with a scan code and they can see the inspection results for that facility.
>> PEGGY PICO: All right, we are out of time, environmental health specialist, Heather Buonomo
thanks for joining us. >>> Thank you.