ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE
SPOTLIGHT ON SUCCESS STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Active Managerial Control: Implementation and Insights
Olivia Alexander- Leeder, MS
Mia Gzebb
Environmental Health Services, Washoe County Health District
tors” (Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2023a). AMC programs facilitate better food safety outcomes by providing the necessary information and tools for food establishment operators to achieve AMC. In 2022, Environmental Health Services within the Washoe County Health District (WCHD) in Northern Nevada received a 3-year National Environmental Health Asso- ciation (NEHA)–Food and Drug Administra- tion (FDA) Retail Flexible Funding Model grant to fund the implementation of an AMC program. The success achieved by the WCHD Food Safety and Consumer Protection Pro- gram during the first year of the grant period encompassed gathering information and building the crucial components of an AMC program. WCHD will begin oering the AMC program starting in July 2023. Implementa- tion of AMC programs can vary among juris- diction; however, sharing the experiences of WCHD might help guide other jurisdictions through the process. In spring 2022, members of the WCHD Food Safety and Consumer Protection Pro- gram visited the Maricopa County Environ- mental Services Department (MCESD) to learn from their experience implementing an AMC program. The broad success of the AMC program oered by MCESD contrib- uted to the department receiving the 2018 Samuel J. Crumbine Consumer Protection Award for Excellence in Food Protection (Shapiro, 2018). WCHD sta were able to attend an AMC class, share and review guid- ance documents and standard operating pro- cedures, and ask questions on lessons learned
Editor’s Note: The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) strives to provide relevant and useful information through the pages of the Journal for environmental health professionals. In a recent membership survey, we heard your request for information that spotlights successful environmental health programs across the dierent areas of environmental health and from dierent sectors of the profession. We listened and are pleased to introduce a new column that shines a spotlight on success stories from the environmental health field. These stories enable us to learn from our peers and provide an avenue to incorporate successful programs, innovative solutions, and unique approaches to our own programs and initiatives. The conclusions of this column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views or ocial position of NEHA, our funders, or our partners. Olivia Alexander-Leeder is an environmental health specialist within the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Program/HACCP Review and Program Standards Subprogram of Environmental Health Services at Washoe County Health District. Mia Gzebb is an environmental health specialist within the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Program/Special Events and Foodborne Disease Subprogram of Environmental Health Services at Washoe County Health District.
A cross the U.S., environmental health agencies are navigating mounting workloads and competing priori- ties. As part of the trend across public health fields, many environmental health agencies are understaed and forced to either cut back on services or devise increasingly cre- ative programs to address community needs
(Leider et al., 2023). For food safety depart- ments, active managerial control (AMC) pro- grams are a practical and proactive approach to support widespread food safety practices with limited sta and resources. AMC is the “purposeful incorporation of specific actions or procedures by industry management to at- tain control over foodborne illness risk fac-
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