Health Dept Penalty?

[Zrob]

I'm curious, and I've looked for this information but cannot find it.

Say a camp was caught serving food in violation of the health regs and without a permit.
What is the penalty?

[BoyScoutGirl]

They probably have the ability to shut your kitchen down if the violations are bad enough, and slap you with a huge fine for not having a permit. But I'm no expert.

And you'll have the increased risk of getting people sick.

[FossaFerox]

They get shut down if they don't have a permit, even if everything is up to code. If they reopen they get ticketed, fined, arrested, etc. Oh, and if you're a registered camp I'm guessing you'll have a hard time being placed in subsequent years. But that's just a guess.

[kittyrodriguez]

What is the penalty?

Explosive diarrhea.

[theCryptofishist]

What is the penalty?

Explosive diarrhea.

In truly bad cases, hep.

[Zrob]

While I expect the snarky answers here, this is an honest question.

I also wasn't talking about not following health code guidelines, I was talking about what is the penalty for not having the permit, and permits don't protect us from hep or gastrointestinal distress.

[Ratty]

A few years ago the guys next to me brought in a huge new trailer that converted to a fresh squeezed orange juice stand. An absolute dream machine. No permit. Shut it down. They also had a very impressive giant motorhome, 2 segways and an airplane. The segways stopped working after a couple of days. They wrecked the plane. Broke a wing. (It was new too). 5 or 6 young men with money but no cents.

[Savannah]

You should probably not leave it to a forum full of snarktastic pranksters, notorious wags, medical volunteers, and . . . well, people from all walks of life who hope they don't get sick over any gifting you might do. Someone here might take exception to your willingness to skirt guidelines and either exaggerate the penalties, or purposefully understate them, be flat-out wrong, or report you on-playa if they & their friends get sick.

Unsafe practices have resulted in sickened groups in the past. I'm sure they thought they were being safe; no one sets out to do otherwise. So please be careful, and good luck to you, but I would strongly encourage you to email the Health Department and ask, because none of us will pay a fine or lose future placement for any mistakes in your food prep, but you might.

[Zrob]

Savannah, I'm fully on board with you, trust me on this.

This all arose from researching the issue with my camp. Try as I might I couldn't find the penalty anywhere.
I'm fully on board with the "just get the damned permit or make sure anything we pass out is factory sealed." Sadly one of my camp members whom I love dearly but we often find ourselves as polar opposites on most issues expressed the "this is a money grab for the state of Nevada and we're not a 'food camp' so they're not gonna care."

I'm loudly fighting against that notion, but I also wanted to know what the exact penalty would be. I'd rather be able to say, for instance, "Look guys it's a $600.00 fine and we forfeit placement for 2 years and by the way I'm not paying a cent of the $600 because I told you so." It backs up my argument a bit more, ya know.

[Savannah]

True. This is why you probably need facts, straight from the horse's mouth. There are a lot of law-abiders here, and some law-skirters who've never been caught. The people who have been caught and are willing to admit it are probably the least in number.

Write the health department from an email address not linked to anything much. Ask what the penalty is. Tell them you're trying to persuade your co-campers to do right. It's the truth.

[FossaFerox]

Savannah, I'm fully on board with you, trust me on this.

This all arose from researching the issue with my camp. Try as I might I couldn't find the penalty anywhere.
I'm fully on board with the "just get the damned permit or make sure anything we pass out is factory sealed." Sadly one of my camp members whom I love dearly but we often find ourselves as polar opposites on most issues expressed the "this is a money grab for the state of Nevada and we're not a 'food camp' so they're not gonna care."

I'm loudly fighting against that notion, but I also wanted to know what the exact penalty would be. I'd rather be able to say, for instance, "Look guys it's a $600.00 fine and we forfeit placement for 2 years and by the way I'm not paying a cent of the $600 because I told you so." It backs up my argument a bit more, ya know.

I TOLD you what the punishment was. There aren't more specific guidelines than that. The actual statute in question:

NRS 446.945  Penalties.  Any person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor. In addition thereto, such persons may be enjoined from continuing such violations. Each day upon which such a violation occurs shall constitute a separate violation.

That's Nevada law. You will be shutdown. You can be charged with a misdemeanor. If they see you open the following day you WILL be charged. This can include a fine of an unspecified amount (always fun, you have to go to court to find out how much you owe) and possible jail time or community service. As for punishment from the org there are no PUBLIC guidelines, but considering that (last I heard) 80+ camps were denied placement this year (and that might have just been in my section of town, come to think of it) I would expect that anyone associated with your camp's leadership or kitchen would be black balled. That's just my suspicion, though.

[trilobyte]

First and foremost, the camp would be shut down. At that point, the camp would be visited again, regularly, and if found to be serving food without a permit again there would be citations/charges.

If you're talking about a permitted camp that was not following health department regulations, it depends upon the specifics. Minor stuff and slip-ups are usually corrected, and bigger stuff could result in a complete shutdown. Their goal is to ensure that food is being handled safely and people don't get sick.

Food poisoning anywhere sucks, but on the playa it means the victims are sentenced to a day or two of hell in a hot porta-potty. From conversations with folks from the health department on-playa last year, they shut down a few camps that were getting people sick.

I'm locking this up because it's not a topic that's open to interpretation and debate. If you're serving food to the public or your camp is preparing meals for 125 or more people, get a permit and follow the regs. More info can be found here.