The Mississippi County Health Department is responsible for the regular inspection of food services establishments and other businesses within the county. The health department conducts regular inspections of:

• School cafeterias
• Restaurants
• Taverns
• Retention/Embargo activities
• Temporary service stands
• Food processing
• Mobile food service, catering operations and commissaries
• Retail grocery, meat markets, meat cutting operations
• Senior citizens
• Summer feeding
• Bakeries, delicatessens
• Daycares
• Lodging

           Any person with questions regarding inspection criteria or procedures to request an inspection can go to the contact us section on this website and send an email to the Environmental Public Health Specialist.  You can also go to the Health Resource section of this website which provides a link to the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).  On the DHSS website, click on Resources and you will find access to the 1999 Missouri Food Code Book which is used as the basis for inspections of all food establishments.

           The frequency of inspection is determined by public health priority based on the Food Establishment Public Health Priority Assessment Worksheet. Food establishments in the high risk category (every six months) should be inspected on a more frequent basis than medium risk facilities (every nine months), which in turn, should be inspected on a more frequent basis than low risk establishments (every year).

          Follow-up inspections will be done within one month if any critical items are found, or excessive non-critical items that have appeared on previous inspections. This is at the discretion of the Environmental Public Health Specialist.