Helping prevent food-borne illness is just one of the responsibilities of the Lawrence County Health Department Environmental Health Team.  This is done through education, inspection, and licensing of restaurants, grocery stores, cafeterias, mobile food vendors, temporary food operations, caterers, and vending machine locations.  The laws concerning construction, operation, and sanitation for Food Service Operations (FSO), Retail Food Establishments (RFE), Mobile Food Services Operations, Mobile Retail Food Establishments, and Temporary FSOs or RFEs can be found in the  Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 3717 and Ohio Administrative Code, Chapter 3717 (Ohio Uniform Food Safety Rules), Ohio Administrative Code 3701-21 (Food Service Administrative Rules). and Ohio Administrative Code 901:3-4 (Retail Food Establishment Administrative Rules).

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In the event of a food-borne illness, the Environmental Health Team works together with the nursing department and regional epidemiologist to investigate the cause, control the outbreak to keep more people from becoming sick, and come up with a plan to keep similar outbreaks from happening in the future.