Sec. 23-2. - Definitions.
The following words and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings respectively ascribed to them, unless the context clearly shows otherwise:
(1) Adulterated food shall mean any food deemed adulterated by the Colorado Food and Drug Act.
(2) Approved shall mean satisfactory to the manager based on determination of conformance with applicable, documented standards and good public health practices.
(3) Board shall mean the board of public health and environment of the City and County of Denver.
(4) Commercial design shall mean all equipment meeting recognized commercial sanitation criteria by organization, such as the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), Underwriters' Laboratories (UL): sanitation standards, Environmental Testing Laboratories, Inc. (ETL): sanitation standards, Baking Industry Sanitation Standards Committee (BISSC), or other comparable design criteria as approved by the department during a standardized equipment review.
(5) Commissary shall mean an approved catering establishment, restaurant, or other approved place in which food, containers or supplies are kept, handled, prepared, packaged or stored.
(6) Contamination shall mean to make unfit for use by the introduction or potential introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.
(7) Department, when not otherwise described, shall mean the department of public health and environment of the City and County of Denver or its authorized agents or employees.
(8) Reserved.
(9) Easily cleanable shall mean surfaces are readily accessible and fabricated of such materials and finishes that residue can be effectively removed by normal cleaning methods.
(10) Employee shall mean any person working in a food establishment who transports food or food containers, who engages in food preparation or service, or who comes in contact with any food, utensils, or equipment.
(11) Equipment shall mean an article used in the operation of a food establishment, such as, but not limited to a freezer, grinder, hood, ice maker, meat block, mixer, oven, reach-in refrigerator, range, scale, sink, slicer, stove, table, thermometer, or ware washing machine. Equipment does not include items used for handling or storing large quantities of packaged foods received from a supplier in a cased or over-wrapped lot, such as hand trucks, forklifts, dollies, pallets, racks, and skids.
(12) Extensively remodeled shall mean any major alteration of an existing configuration in any food establishment that results in one (1) or more of the following conditions:
(a) An increase in seating capacity, including service provided anywhere on the premises, by twenty (20) percent or more in either a single construction project or an incremental series of construction activities;
(b) Any alteration or revision of a food establishment or related equipment that requires a building or construction permit pursuant to the Denver Building Code. Routine maintenance, repairs, or cosmetic changes shall not be considered extensive remodeling;
(c) Any change or alteration made in the nonpublic areas that results in a reduction or increase of total space by twenty-five (25) percent or more; or
(d) Any diminution of the facility's capabilities to handle food and utensils in a sanitary manner that creates potentially hazardous conditions.
(13) Food shall mean any raw, cooked or processed edible substance, ice, beverage, or ingredient used or intended for use or for sale in whole or in part for human consumption.
(14) Food contact surface shall mean those surfaces of equipment and utensils, excluding ventilation hoods, which normally come into contact with food, and those surfaces from which food may drain, drip, or splash back onto surfaces in contact with food.
(15) Food establishment shall mean any food processing, wholesale, and warehouse establishment, or retail food establishment; unless such establishment is excluded from regulation and licensing by section 23-1 of this chapter.
(16) Food peddler shall mean a mobile food vendor who is not operating from a mobile retail food establishment or a pushcart.
(17) Food processing, wholesale, and warehouse establishment shall mean any establishment engaged in the business of selling at wholesale, processing, storing, handling or packaging of food intended for human consumption. This term does not include a retail food establishment or commissary operation.
(18) Food-borne disease outbreak shall mean:
(a) An incident, except as specified in paragraph (b) of this subsection (18), in which:
i. Two (2) or more otherwise unrelated persons experience a similar illness after ingestion of a common food; and
ii. Epidemiological analysis implicates the food as the source of the illness; or
(b) A single case of illness, such as one (1) person ill from botulism or chemical poisoning.
(19) HACCP plan shall mean a written document that delineates the formal procedures for following the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point principles.
(20) Nonpotentially hazardous food shall mean:
(a) Hard-boiled eggs with shells intact which have been air cooled;
(b) Foods with a water activity (a w ) value of 0.85 or less;
(c) Foods with a measurement of acidity (pH) of 4.6 or below;
(d) Foods which have been adequately commercially processed and remain in their unopened hermetically sealed container; and
(e) Food for which laboratory evidence acceptable to the manager demonstrates that rapid and progressive growth of infectious and toxigenic microorganisms, the growth of Salmonella enteritidis in eggs or the slower growth of Clostridium botulinum cannot occur.
(21) Manager, when not otherwise described, shall mean the manager of public health and environment of the City and County of Denver and the manager's authorized representative.
(22) Manager of transportation and infrastructure shall mean the manager of transportation and infrastructure for the City and County of Denver and the manager's authorized representative.
(23) Mobile retail food establishment shall mean a retail food establishment that reports to and operates from a commissary and is readily moveable, is a motorized wheeled vehicle, or a towed wheeled vehicle designed and equipped to serve food.
(24) Number of employees shall mean the monthly average number of persons in the establishment who work full time, or the full-time equivalent of part-time workers, and receive anything of value for their services during the preceding twelve-month period, or at the time of application for a license, whichever is greater.
(25) Person shall mean a natural person, partnership, association, company, corporation, or other legal entity or a manager, agent, servant, officer or employee of any of them.
(26) Person in charge shall mean the individual present at a food establishment who is responsible for the operation at the time of the inspection. If no individual has been designated by the food establishment as the responsible person, then any employed person present is the person in charge.
(27) Potentially hazardous food shall mean any food that is natural or synthetic and that requires temperature control because it is in a form capable of supporting:
(a) The rapid and progressive growth of infectious or toxigenic microorganisms;
(b) The growth and toxin production of Clostridium botulinum; or
(c) In raw shell eggs, the growth of Salmonella enteritidis.
The phrase "potentially hazardous food" shall also include any food of animal origin that is raw or heat-treated; any food of plant origin that is heat-treated or consists of raw seed sprouts; cut melons; and garlic in oil mixtures that are not acidified or otherwise modified at a food processing plant in a way that results in mixtures that do not support growth as specified in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this definition.
(28) Pushcart shall mean a nonself-propelled vehicle limited to serving commissary prepared or prepackaged food and nonpotentially hazardous food, unless the equipment is commercially designed and approved to handle food preparation and service.
(29) Restaurant shall mean any retail food establishment primarily engaged in the sale of prepared food, drink, or both for human consumption, and consumption is allowed on the premises.
(30) Retail food establishment shall mean a retail operation that stores, prepares, or packages food for sale for human consumption or serves or otherwise provides food for sale for human consumption to consumers directly, or indirectly through a delivery service, whether such food is consumed on or off the premises, unless such retail operation is excluded from regulation and licensing by section 23-1 of this chapter 23.
(31) Sanitization shall mean the application of cumulative heat or chemicals on cleaned food contact surfaces that, when evaluated for efficacy, is sufficient to yield a reduction of five (5) logs, which is equal to a 99.999 percent reduction, of representative disease microorganisms of public health importance.
(32) Temporary retail food establishment shall mean a retail food establishment, other than a licensed mobile retail food establishment or pushcart, that is not intended to be permanent and that operates at a fixed location for a period of time of not more than fourteen (14) consecutive days in conjunction with a single event or celebration.
(33) Utensil shall mean any implement used in the storage, preparation, transportation or service of food.
(34) Ware washing shall mean the cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and utensil food contact surfaces.
(Ord. No. 97-99, § 1, 2-8-99; Ord. No. 427-18, § 13, 6-11-18; Ord. No. 39-20, § 50, 2-3-20; Ord. No. 1003-25, § 13, 7-28-25)
