State regulated food safety inspections at Florida restaurants are to be scaled back in a cost-cutting measure that has been much criticised.
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Governor Jeb Bush suggested in his proposed 2002 state budget laying off one-third of the 300 employees in the State’s hotel and restaurant division to save money and close the US$4m deficit in the hotel and restaurant inspection budget.
The Florida Constitution prohibits deficit spending, but this will mean that each of the state’s 38,000 restaurants are visited by regulators just once a year. Currently, they are inspected three times a year.
Consumer advocates, lawmakers and some in the restaurant industry are fighting the move, however.
The department’s deficit has been blamed on legislation introduced in 1996 that added around 30 new inspectors without increasing the annual fees paid by restaurants, which range from US$211 to US$305.
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By GlobalData
