[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Highland Park as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 12-16-2025 by Ord. No. 25-2120]
As used in this section:
CERTIFICATION OF COMPLETION
Means an official document indicating that an individual has successfully completed a certified food-safety course.
CERTIFIED FOOD-SAFETY COURSE
Means a food-handling and safety training program approved by the New Jersey Department of Health or another nationally recognized certification body (e.g., ServSafe, NRFSP, or equivalent).
EMPLOYEE
Means any person who handles food during preparation or serving, or who comes in contact with any eating or cooking utensils, or who is employed in a room in which food is prepared or served.
FOOD AND DRINK
Means all substances, except drugs, used or intended to be used for human consumption, whether simple, mixed or compounded.
FOOD PREPARER
Means any person whose job duties include the handling, preparation, cooking, or storage of food in a food establishment.
FROZEN DESSERTS
Means ice cream, milk sherbet, ice or ice sherbet or frozen confection.
OPERATOR
Means any person who conducts a food-handling establishment, maintains a food vending machine or vends food within the Borough.
RETAIL FOOD ESTABLISHMENT
Means an operation that stores, prepares, packages, serves, and vends, or otherwise provides food for human consumption to a consumer, or indirectly to consumers through a delivery service, such as home delivery of grocery orders or restaurant takeout orders, or a service that is provided by common carriers, and shall include restaurants, catering operations, or any other establishment as defined under N.J.A.C. 8:24-1.1 et seq.
SUPERVISOR
Means any person charged with the responsibility of overseeing the operations, including the supervision of employees engaged in the preparing, processing and sale of food or drink intended for human consumption, be it for on- or off-premises consumption.
TEMPORARY RETAIL FOOD ESTABLISHMENT
Means any establishment which operates at a fixed location for a temporary period of time in connection with a fair, carnival, circus, public exhibition, or similar transitory gathering, including church suppers, picnics or similar organizational meeting, as well as agricultural markets conducted on a regular basis.
UTENSIL
Means and includes any kitchenware, tableware, glassware, cutlery, containers or other equipment with which food comes in contact.
All retail food establishments and temporary retail food establishments operating within the boundaries of the Borough of Highland Park shall comply with all required sanitation standards required by N.J.A.C. 8:24-1.1 et seq.
A. 
No person shall operate a food handling establishment, restaurant or itinerant restaurant, maintain a food vending machine or peddle or vend food from a vehicle within the Borough without first making written application for a license to the Borough Clerk and securing the approval of the Board of Health for the conduct of such activity under the conditions specified.
B. 
This regulation shall not apply to taverns where no food is served.
A. 
Pursuant to N.J.A.C. 8:24-1.1 et seq., no establishment shall be open for business in the preparing, processing and sale of food or drink intended for human consumption without having a supervisor on the premises who has a food handler's certificate.
B. 
All food preparers employed in any food establishment must successfully complete a certified food-safety course within six months of beginning employment involving food preparation duties.
C. 
Certificates of completion of any food safety course shall remain valid for the duration specified by the issuing program after which the individual must complete a renewal course.
D. 
The Health Officer may, at his or her discretion, when found necessary, require such persons to attend supplementary courses.
E. 
The training course must be approved by Board of Health of the Borough of Highland Park. Accredited certifying programs that meet the requirements of N.J.A.C. 8:24-2.1 are also acceptable under this section.
The provisions of § 103-4 shall not apply to handlers of any food which is ordinarily cooked or peeled before consumption, or which is enclosed in cans or other packages.
The Board of Health shall inspect as often as it is deemed necessary every food handling establishment. The operator of a food handling establishment shall permit access to all parts of the establishment and shall make available all records of food purchased upon request of the Board of Health.
No food or drink for human consumption shall be sold or offered for sale which has been exposed to any communicable disease or which is unfit, unwholesome, impure, decayed, diseased, misbranded or adulterated according to the meaning of Title 24 of the Revised Statutes of the State of New Jersey, or of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,[1] or which contains or has been exposed to any foreign or injurious contamination.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 21 U.S.C. § 301 et seq.
A. 
All employees shall wear clean, washable outer garments and shall keep their hands and arms clean at all times while engaged in handling food, drink, utensils or equipment; they shall not expectorate or use tobacco in any form in any room in which food is prepared or stored.
B. 
Employees with open lesions or cuts on hands shall not handle food. Employees having long hair shall wear hair nets while preparing food. Employees with acute respiratory and acute intestinal illnesses or other diseases in a communicable stage shall not be permitted to work on the premises during the period of such illness.
Every retail food establishment shall provide adequate and convenient hand-washing facilities, including hot and cold running water, soap and approved sanitary towels or air-drying facilities. The use of common towels is prohibited. Employees shall not resume work after using the toilet room or subjecting the hands to other contaminating contact without first washing the hands and arms.
In every retail food establishment, suitable sinks with running hot and cold water shall be easily accessible to or in all rooms in which food is prepared or utensils are washed. The water supply system shall be adequate as to quantity and quality and meet the standards prescribed by the State Department of Health of New Jersey and/or the Board of Health.