The Health Officer of the Township of Nether
Providence shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to enforce
the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the regulations of the
Pennsylvania State Department of Health and the ordinances of the
Township of Nether Providence, relating to health work, and to make
and enforce such additional rules and regulations to prevent the introduction
and spread of infectious or contagious diseases and, by abating and
removing all nuisances which he shall deem prejudicial to the public
health, to mark infected houses or places and make other rules and
regulations as he shall deem necessary for the preservation of the
public health. Such rules and regulations, when approved by the Township
Commissioners, and when advertised in the same manner as other ordinances,
shall have the force of ordinances of the Township.
As used in this chapter the following words
and phrases shall have the meanings indicated unless the context clearly
indicates a different meaning:
ADULTERATED
The condition of a food:
A.
If it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious
substance in a quantity which is likely to render it injurious to
health;
B.
If it bears or contains any added poisonous
or deleterious substance for which no safe tolerance has been established
by regulation or in excess of such tolerance if one has been established;
C.
If it consists in whole or in part of any filthy,
putrid or decomposed substance or if it is otherwise unfit for human
consumption;
D.
If it has been processed, prepared, packed or
held under unsanitary conditions whereby it is likely to have become
contaminated with filth or whereby it is likely to have been rendered
injurious to health;
E.
If it is, in whole or in part, the product of
a diseased animal or an animal which has died otherwise than by slaughter;
or
F.
If its container is composed in whole or in
part of any poisonous or deleterious substance which is likely to
render the contents injurious to health.
APPROVED
Accepted as satisfactory to the Health Officer.
CUSTARD MIX and CUSTARD-FILLED
Any product consisting principally of flour, sugar, eggs
and milk, with or without cornstarch, heated, cooled and applied to
pastry without subsequent heating and to filled pastry such as cream
puffs or eclairs which may be heated subsequent to filling.
EMPLOYEE
Any person who handles food or drink during the preparation
or serving or comes in contact with any eating or cooking utensils
or who is employed in a room in which food or drink is prepared or
served. This shall include an individual proprietor or any member
of the proprietor's family who handles food and drink.
EQUIPMENT
All stoves, ranges, hoods, meat blocks, tables, counters,
refrigerators, sinks, dishwashing machines, steam tables and similar
items, other than utensils, used in the operation of a public eating
and drinking place or a food establishment.
FOOD
Any raw, cooked or processed edible substance, beverage or
ingredient intended in whole or in part for human consumption.
FOOD-CONTACT SURFACES
Surfaces of equipment and utensils which normally come in
contact with food, directly or indirectly.
FOOD ESTABLISHMENT
Any place where food or beverage intended for human consumption
is kept, stored, manufactured, prepared, dressed, handled, sold or
offered for sale, with or without charge, either at wholesale or retail
and not consumed on the premises; provided, however, that the term
"food establishment" shall not include a public eating and drinking
place.
GARBAGE
All putrescible wastes, except sewage and body waste, including
animal and offal.
HEALTH OFFICER
The Health Officer of the Township of Nether Providence or
his/her authorized representative(s).
LICENSE
The permission granted to a licensee to conduct a public
eating and drinking place, food establishment or itinerant public
eating and drinking place.
LICENSER
The Health Officer of the Township of Nether Providence.
NUISANCE
A public nuisance affecting health.
ODOR EMISSIONS
Fugitive or malodorous air contaminants emitted into the
outdoor atmosphere from any source in such a manner that the contaminants
are detectable outside the property of the person on whose land the
source is being operated.
OWNER
The owner or owners of any building or structure, whether
individual, firm, corporation, association or partnership.
PERSON
Any individual, firm, corporation, association or partnership
and includes the plural as well as the singular and the female as
well as the male.
POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS FOOD OR DRINK
Any perishable food or drink which consists, in whole or
in part, of milk or milk products, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, shellfish
or other ingredients capable of supporting rapid and progressive growth
of infectious or toxigenic microorganisms.
PROPRIETOR
Any person, partnership, association or corporation conducting
or operating within the limits of the Township a public eating and
drinking place or a food establishment or an itinerant public eating
and drinking place.
PUBLIC EATING AND DRINKING PLACE
Restaurant; coffee shop; cafeteria; short-order cafe; snack
bar; or any other place where food, drinks or refreshments are served,
sold or prepared and sold or given away to be consumed on the premises;
provided, however, that this definition shall not be interpreted to
include boardinghouses or private homes.
REFUSE
All nonputrescible wastes generally regarded as rubbish,
trash, junk and similar debris which have been rejected by the owner
or possessor thereof as useless or worthless.
SANITIZE
Effective bactericidal treatment of clean surfaces of equipment
and utensils by a process which has been approved by the Pennsylvania
Department of Health as being effective in destroying microorganisms,
including pathogens.
SHELLFISH
Includes oysters, clams, scallops or mussels, fresh or frozen;
any shrimp, crab or lobster, fresh, frozen or cooked but not packed
in a sealed container; and any other mollusks, fresh or frozen, intended
for human consumption.
SINGLE-SERVICE ARTICLES
Cups, containers, lids or closures, plates, knives, forks,
spoons, stirrers, paddles, straws, place mats, napkins, doilies, wrapping
materials and all similar articles which are constructed wholly or
in part from paper, paperboard, molded pulp, foil, wood, plastic,
synthetic or other readily destructible material, and which are intended
by the manufacturers and generally recognized by the public for a
one-time use only, and then to be discarded.
SOURCE
Any well, spring, cistern, infiltration gallery, stream,
reservoir, pond or lake from which water is taken, by any means, either
intermittently or continuously for use by the public.
UTENSILS
Any kitchenware, tableware, glassware, cutlery, containers
or other equipment with which food or drink comes in contact during
storage, preparation or serving.
WASTE
Any substance that contains any of the waste products or
excrements or other discharge from the bodies of human beings or animals
and any noxious or deleterious substance being harmful or inimical
to the public health, or to animal or aquatic life, or to the use
of water for domestic water supply or for recreation.
WATER SUPPLY
A source or sources of water, as well as any and all water
treatment, storage, transmission and distribution facilities.
When a public eating and drinking place or a
food establishment is hereafter constructed or extensively remodeled
or when an existing structure is converted for use as a public eating
and drinking place or a food establishment, properly prepared plans
and specifications for such construction, remodeling or alteration,
showing layout, arrangement and construction materials of work areas
and the location, size and type of fixed equipment and facilities,
shall be submitted in duplicate to the Health Officer for approval
before such work is begun. No building permit shall be issued by the
Building Inspector until such approval has been given by the Health
Officer.
Separate hand-washing facilities are required.
In any public eating and drinking place or any food establishment
or any itinerant public eating and drinking place where frequent hand
washing by any employee is necessary to prevent contamination of food
during processing, manufacture or preparation, separate hand-washing
facilities, including an adequate supply of powdered or liquid soap
and sanitary towels, shall be provided in the workroom and located
conveniently near each such work space.
Running hot and cold water under pressure of
not less than 15 pounds per square inch shall be easily accessible
to all rooms in which food is prepared or utensils washed and shall
be from an approved source.
All waste resulting from the cleansing and rinsing
of utensils and floors, from flush toilets and lavatories must be
disposed of in a public sewer or, in the absence of a public sewer,
by methods approved by provisions of the Nether Providence Township
Plumbing Code. Prior to removal from the premises, all garbage and refuse
must be stored in nonleaking metal containers with tight-fitting lids
or in an approved storage room. Garbage and refuse must be removed
from the premises as often as necessary to prevent a nuisance and
disposed of in a manner to be approved by the Health Officer. All
garbage and refuse receptacles must be washed when emptied and treated
with a disinfectant, if necessary, to prevent a nuisance.
No person shall operate or maintain any public
eating and drinking place, or any food establishment, or any itinerant
public eating and drinking place otherwise than in a clean and sanitary
condition and so as to conform at all times to the requirements of
this chapter. The person in charge of and every food handler employed
in any public eating and drinking place, or any food establishment,
or any itinerant public eating and drinking place shall observe and
comply with the provisions of this chapter relating to the operation
and maintenance of such public eating and drinking places and/or food
establishments and/or itinerant public eating and drinking place.
The Health Officer and his official designee
in the performance of any duty imposed by this chapter shall have
full access to any place, container or conveyance used in the production,
preparation, manufacture, packaging, storage, transportation, handling,
distribution or sale of any food. He shall be entitled to make an
examination, open any package or container and take therefrom a sample
for analysis of any food manufactured, sold, exposed for sale or found
to be in possession of the proprietor or licensee in violation of
any provisions of this chapter.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any
provision of this chapter or the rules and regulations approved and
hereinafter adopted shall, upon summary conviction before any District
Justice of the Peace, pay a fine not exceeding $1,000 and costs of
prosecution; and in default of one payment of the fine and costs,
the violator may be sentenced to the county jail for a term of not
more than 30 days. Whenever such person shall have been officially
notified by the Health Officer or by the service of a summons in a
prosecution or in any other official manner that he is committing
a violation of this chapter or the rules and regulations approved
and hereinafter adopted, each day that he shall continue such violation
after such notification shall constitute a separate offense punishable
by a like fine or penalty. Such fines or penalties shall be collected
as like fines or penalties are now by law collected.
Whenever the proprietor or licensee of a public
eating and drinking place or food establishment or itinerant public
eating and drinking place shall fail to keep his public eating and
drinking place or food establishment or itinerant public eating and
drinking place in a sanitary condition or whenever food or drink or
the sale of the same is likely to cause or transmit disease, the Health
Officer, upon proper notification, shall order such public eating
and drinking place or food establishment or itinerant public eating
and drinking place closed until it shall have been put in a sanitary
condition or until the food or drink and the sale of the same shall
no longer be likely to cause any illness or transmit disease. The
proprietor or licensee of the public eating and drinking place or
food establishment or itinerant public eating and drinking place,
when so ordered, shall not conduct further operations until permission
has been granted by the Health Officer.