BUCYRUS— The Crawford County Board of Health congratulated many local food facilities during their meeting on March 17 as a large stack of certificates signed by Board President Zach Wolfe were awarded to 43 Food Safety Award Winners from the 2020 licensing year.

Several years ago, Crawford County Public Health (CCPH) initiated an annual Food Safety Award Program to recognize local food establishments that exhibit exceptional efforts to make, serve, and sell safe food to the public. In the state of Ohio, a complete food licensing and operational year runs from March 1st through the end of February of the following year.

The Superior Award from CCPH recognizes a facility did not have any food safety violations of any kind noted during an unannounced inspection during the previous licensing year. An Excellent Award is provided to facilities that did not have any critical food safety violations AND did not have more than three non-critical food safety violations noted during an inspection. Examples of critical violations include poor temperature control, improper cooking, refrigeration or reheating temperatures, bare hand contact on foods ready for consumption, and improper handwashing. Non-critical violations include lack of facility cleanliness, lack of facility maintenance and improper cleaning of equipment and utensils.

CCPH is proud to announce the facilities that won Superior or Excellent Food Safety Awards out of 113 eligible license holders. They are listed in the photo above.

Kate Siefert, Crawford County Health Commissioner, offered praise to the award winners.

“We all acknowledge that 2020 was not an easy year for anyone.  Small businesses, restaurants, and retail stores were all impacted significantly, and continue to be impacted, by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The fact that we have such a large number of food safety award winners illustrates their resilience to do whatever is needed to provide safe food to those that live, as well as those that pass through, our Crawford County community,” said Siefert.

The completion of the 2020 food licensing year marked the eighth year CCPH has recognized local food operations for exceptional food safety practices. CCPH would like to further acknowledge the following four facilities that have consistently received a food safety award all eight years:

  • Buckeye Central Schools
  • Little Athens
  • Walmart
  • Wynford Elementary

For more information about Crawford County Public Health or to view the local food service inspections, visit the website www.crawfordhealth.org  Local food inspections are updated daily on the website. To keep up with daily information and program activities, be sure to like/follow Crawford County Public Health on Facebook.