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You can find a variety of food at this year's Ozark Empire Fair. But, how can you be sure it's safe to eat? KSMU's Michele Skalicky has more...
The food is why some people visit the Ozark Empire Fair. For some, it's one of the few times during the year to indulge in food like corn dogs and fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches--one of the new offerings at this year's fair.
But, besides the fat content, how can you be certain that the food you eat is healthy and won't make you sick? Rest assured--health inspectors are on the job...
Sound of inspection
Thursday, the day before the fair started, several health inspectors visited fair food vendors and made sure they were compliant with health regulations before issuing them permits. Lisa Brenneman is a health inspector with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. She explains what they look for during the inspections...
"Well, we look for the critical items that are most likely to make somebody sick like food temperatures, hand washing, bare hand contact, cross contamination, that kind of thing."
Vendors with three or more critical violations are shut down until they correct the problems. This is Brenneman's second year working the fair...
"We typically find food temperature problems. That's the main--most common problem, an occasional hand washing problem, but mainly the food temps. It's really hard out here in this heat to keep the temperature at cold enough."
Health inspectors will be out inspecting food vendors each day of the fair...
"Especially in this, with all the big crowds, a food borne outbreak would be our worst nightmare...somebody undercooks their hamburgers they're selling or something like that could cause an e-coli outbreak."
Nine to ten inspectors are on the job during the fair, and Brenneman says people should feel secure in the knowledge that they food they eat there is safe...
"I think they should feel very secure. Like I said, we inspect them everyday. The restaurants they eat at we don't inspect everyday, so there should be really safe food here."
The Ozark Empire Fair opened today (7/31). It runs through August 9th. For KSMU News, I'm Michele Skalicky.
