The Georgia Restaurant Association has been spearheading the development and implementation of the new Food Code for over two years. Until the GRA stepped in, there wasn't any input from actual restaurant professionals. The code had been written by members of the DHR and if passed into law, could of had a disastrous effect on FoodService Operators in the State. There is also a Georgia Food Code Resource Center where you can ask questions and get answers from the Staff and Director of the DHR.

To quote Nancy Oswald (Ruth's Chris Steak House) past Chairwoman of the Georgia Restaurant Association:
"... 2006 was no doubt a year of accomplishments for the GRA, perhaps none more important than our work on the Georgia Food Code. For those of you who missed the front page of the AJC on January 18th and the editorial in today’s paper, the DHR Board just last week approved the third revised version of the Rules and Regulations for Food Service. What the AJC article did not mention is the tireless hours spent by MANY of our GRA members to reach this conclusion and insure a smooth implementation by year’s end. Please allow me to publicly thank those who worked on the front line and those behind the scenes who helped achieve this goal. First and foremost, I will forever be indebted to Frank Ferko of Rare Hospitality (who led the charge and guided us all as we navigated through what was sometimes very unfamiliar regulatory territory), Todd Burrowes and Tammi Stigger also of Rare Hospitality, Niko Karatassos of Buckhead Life, Neel Sengupta, Eric Holm and Don Adkkison of Golden Corral, Pam Williams of YUM Brands, Board member Jaime Gonzalez, GRA Executive Director Ron Wolf, Hal Noakof Hal’s, our Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Guy Thomson, Senator Don Balfour, Mike Vaquer and Jean McRae of the Vaquer Firm, our 2006 GRA Vice Chair and Incoming 2007 Chair Lenore Krentz, and last but certainly not least -- our esteemed General Counsel Charles Hoff who spent tireless hours crafting our message, researching and advising.

The results of each and everyone’s diligent efforts are clear. We will now have a Food Code that is more closely aligned with the most current version of the national Model Food Code – the most scientifically sound food safety technical guidance document available today. The GRA’s continued advocacy of the Model Code is largely responsible for this result. Other positive revisions to the code that the GRA played an integral role in securing are a reconfigured scoring mechanism where risk factor values are weighted according to severity, a true 100 point scoring scale, and revisions to the original plan calling for the displaying of letter grades on our restaurants’ front doors."

You can find more Health and Safety information on our website FoodServiceResource.com