LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Lackland public health officials honored the Rodney H. Gott dining facility for maintaining a higher standard of sanitation during a presentation Feb. 17.
Public health selected Gott as best dining facility in 2009 for its excellence in sanitation inspection ratings. Inspectors evaluate Lackland large dining facilities monthly at a minimum for sanitation, food handling and general cleanliness.
Jorge Rodriguez-Catalan, Lackland public health specialist and operations manager, said it's been two years since a facility was honored.
"If the facility deserves the award, we give it," he said. "(A facility) really has to earn it and that's the reason why we don't do it every year. It's a very difficult thing for a facility to continuously exceed the (federal) standards."
The sanitation inspectors rate facilities as excellent, satisfactory, marginal or unsatisfactory in accordance with the Food and Drug Administration codebook. Public health officials strive for all base facilities to maintain satisfactory ratings.
Mr. Rodriguez said that maintaining FDA standards would reflect positively during an inspection.
The dining facility staff went above and beyond those standards on a consistent basis to earn the recognition. It is one of 28 large dining facilities, categorized by the number of people served and volume of food being produced and sold, on Lackland and the Kelly Field Annex.
Facility areas evaluated in detail during an inspection for sanitation, cleanliness and safety include management and personnel; food; equipment, utensils and linens; water, plumbing and waste; physical facilities; poisonous or toxic materials; and self evaluations.
"The inspection is more of a report card to the facility (for) following the food code; that's a federal guideline," said Mr. Rodriguez. "We're trying to help that facility, to tell them how well they're doing. We are a little more stringent (than civil public health) but it's because we have a military mission."
He said in regard to sanitation inspections, the dining facilities on Lackland were good as a whole and couldn't recall any illness associated to a bad food facility, crediting the facilities with trying to exceed minimum standards.