Press Release

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February 26, 2008

Health officials in Contra Costa County say they are pleased with the progress being made by a South County food market to protect the public's health and safety. Contra Costa Health Services Environmental Health Division said that Windmill Farms in San Ramon has taken a number of steps to change their food preparation, storage and other areas to meet health requirements.

"We had a meeting last week to go over their plans for enclosing the food storage and display areas and we are impressed by their efforts to move ahead with all of the work we requested," said Sherman Quinlan, Director of the County's Environmental Health Services.

The Environmental Health Division ordered Windmill Farms to make improvements last year after repeated inspections showed several code violations, including food preparation and display. A main issue was that Windmill Farms had to improve food protection by providing a fully enclosed, approved structure in order to be able to sell anything other than whole, uncut produce and packaged, non-potentially hazardous foods.

Windmill Farms has been working with Environmental Health to meet code requirements and meets most Retail Food Code requirements now that temporary front doors have been installed. Later, those doors are to be replaced with permanent ones, which should happen over the next several months. When drawings showing the required work that has been done are submitted, Environmental Health will issue a permit to operate for the new permit year, March 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009.

In the meanwhile, because the facility now includes a fully enclosed area, the market can safely sell what is categorized as "potentially hazardous foods," foods that can cause illness when eaten, such as cut melon, Quinlan said.

"We are pleased that Windmill Farms has taken steps to better protect their customers from food borne illnesses by complying with State standards for food safety," Quinlan said.

For more information about the Environmental Health Division and regulations, visit www.cchealth.org/groups/eh

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