[1]
Editor's Note: For statutory provisions dealing with food and drink
generally, see Code of Virginia, § 3.1-361 et seq. As to the authority
of the City to regulate production, preparation, sale, etc., of food and food
products, see Code of Virginia, § 15.1-853.
The Director of Public Health shall have the power, whenever he deems
it necessary for the preservation of the health of the citizens, to prohibit
the sale of food, fish, fruit or other articles which he may consider injurious.
It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or offer or expose for sale
for human food any article which has been prepared, handled or kept where
the sanitary conditions are such that the article is rendered unhealthy, unwholesome,
deleterious or otherwise unfit for human food or which consists in whole or
in part of diseased, filthy, decomposed or putrid animal or vegetable matter.
[1]
Editor's Note: For statutory provisions dealing with this topic, see
Code of Virginia, § 3.1-383.
A.
Dust and insects.
(1)
No person shall expose for sale, on any public highway
or in any open market, stand or store in the city, candy or bread, dates or
figs or any other food of a kind not ordinarily cooked, peeled or washed before
being eaten unless such candy, cake, figs, dates or other articles of food
are effectually wrapped or covered and enclosed so as to protect them from
dust and insects.
(2)
It shall be unlawful to wrap or cover any such articles
with newspapers or with any paper previously used for any other purpose.
B.
Protection from dogs. No person shall expose any article
of food for sale on any public highway in the city, within 24 inches of the
surface of the ground, unless such article of food is covered or enclosed
to prevent the access of dogs or is constantly in the immediate presence of
the owner of such article of food or the proper representative of such owner
having custody thereof.
C.
Seafood. Fresh fish, oysters and other similar seafood
exposed for sale on any street or within any store must be kept on ice and
dispensed from closed receptacles of racks with glass tops so as to be thoroughly
protected from dust and dirt.
It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer or expose for sale
for human food the flesh of any animal that was diseased, overheated or run
down by dogs at or before the time such animal was butchered or slain or which
died a natural or violent death not in the usual manner of killing animals
for food.
A.
Every owner or manager of a store, market, cafe, lunchroom
or any other place where food or a beverage or confectionery or any similar
article is manufactured or prepared for sale, stored for sale, offered for
sale or sold shall cause it to be screened or effectually protected by power-driven
fans so as to prevent flies and other insects from obtaining access to such
food, beverage, confectionery or other article and to keep such food free
from flies and other insects at all times.
B.
In addition, such persons shall place screens adequate
for protection against flies or other insects in every window and door of
all kitchens, dining rooms and other food storage or preparation rooms.
Every person owning or occupying any room, stall, store, hotel, restaurant
or other place where any meat, butter, fish, fruit, vegetables, ice cream,
confectioneries, cheese, bread, cakes, pies or any other food supplies, whether
of like kind or not, or any food or drink products are kept, exposed or offered
for sale or furnished or supplied for human consumption shall put and keep
such place and its appurtenances in a clean and wholesome condition. Every
person having charge of, interested in or engaged in the care of any such
articles of food supplies, food or drink products of milk, designed for human
consumption, shall put and preserve the same in a clean and wholesome condition
and shall not allow the same or any part thereof to be infected or rendered
unsafe or unwholesome for human food.
Every manager of a store, market, dairy, cafe or lunchroom or of any
other place where food or a beverage or confectionery or any similar article
is manufactured or prepared for sale, stored for sale or sold shall equip
such store, market, dairy, cafe, lunchroom or other place with running water
and with facilities and materials for the proper washing of employees' hands,
and shall cause such washing to be done, and for the proper cleansing of such
store, market, dairy, cafe, lunchroom or other place and of all apparatus,
utensils and materials used in connection therewith and shall cause such cleansing
to be done.
[1]
Editor's Note: For statutory provisions requiring washrooms and toilets
for food establishments, see Code of Virginia, § 3.1-380.
No person shall employ nor shall employment be accepted by any person
who has an infectious or contagious disease or any other disease that may
be transmitted by food, in a hotel, restaurant, dairy, bakery or boardinghouse,
nor shall such person be connected in any way with the handling of exposed
food for other persons. The Director of Public Health may require any person
so employed and suspected of having any of the above-mentioned diseases to
submit to a complete examination in order to determine the presence of such
disease and shall prohibit such person from engaging in the handling of food
supplies pending the results of the examination.
[1]
Editor's Note: For statutory provisions regarding persons with contagious
or infectious diseases working in food establishments, see Code of Virginia,
§ 3.1-377.
A.
No employer shall permit, require or suffer any person
to work in a bakery, confectionery, dairy, creamery, hotel kitchen, hotel
dining room or restaurant kitchen or as a restaurant waiter or waitress or
as a food handler or dispenser of unbottled drinks in any business establishment
in the City unless such person furnishes such employer with a certificate
from a physician licensed under the laws of the state, which certificate shall
not have been in force more than six months from its date, certifying that
such person is free from contagious, infectious and communicable disease.
No employer shall employ or keep in his employ any such person whose certificate
is over six months old.
B.
For the purposes of this section, "contagious, infectious
and communicable diseases" are hereby declared to be all diseases defined
as such by state law.
C.
It shall be unlawful for any physician to knowingly falsely
furnish any person with a certificate of health, such as required by this
section.
[Added 7-13-2004 by Ord. No. 04-13]
A.
Title 35.1 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, shall not
apply to any City fairs or festivals sponsored by the City of Colonial Heights
or concession stands at youth athletic activities, when such stands are promoted
or sponsored by either a youth athletic association or by any charitable nonprofit
organization or group thereof which has been recognized by resolution of the
City as being part of its youth recreational program.
B.
The advisory standards issued by the state board of health are
incorporated herein by reference and shall apply to the sale, preparation,
serving, transporting and handling of food at such events. The health district
director or his designee shall supervise the sale, preparation, service, transporting
and handling of food at such events.
C.
It shall be the duty of the health district director, or a qualified
person designated by him, to provide education and consultation, establish
advisory standards and exercise appropriate supervision regarding the safe
preparation, handling, protection and preservation of food at such events
to protect the public health.
