{"id":3778,"date":"2017-03-14T13:44:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T13:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/?page_id=3778"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:21:08","slug":"vdh-and-vdacs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/food-safety-in-virginia\/vdh-and-vdacs\/","title":{"rendered":"VDH and VDACS Partnership and MOU Agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-3778\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-3778-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-3778-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-3778-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p>The <strong>Virginia Department of Health (VDH)<\/strong>\u00a0and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vdacs.virginia.gov\/food-food-safety-and-consumer-protection.shtml\"><strong>Virginia Department of Agriculture &amp; Consumer Services (VDACS)<\/strong><\/a> work together to maintain the highest level of public health protection in food operations to keep citizens of the Commonwealth safe from foodborne illness. Code of Virginia <a href=\"http:\/\/law.lis.virginia.gov\/vacode\/title3.2\/chapter51\/section3.2-5100\/\">\u00a73.2-5100<\/a> establishes VDACS\u2019s authority and responsibility for inspecting all establishments which manufacture, sell, expose, or offer food and drink products for sale. Code of Virginia <a href=\"http:\/\/law.lis.virginia.gov\/vacode\/title35.1\/chapter1\/section35.1-1\/\">\u00a7\u00a735.1-1<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/law.lis.virginia.gov\/vacode\/title35.1\/chapter1\/section35.1-5\/\">35.1-5<\/a> give VDH responsibility for inspecting restaurants, including any place where food is served to the public, whether on or off premises, and any place where food is prepared.<\/p>\n<p>In areas where the inspection authority of VDH and VDACS overlap, Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) delineate the responsibilities of each agency and reduce duplicate inspections to the greatest extent possible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Refer to the full MOUs below for more information on the inspection responsibilities of each agency as they relate to food service operations in different types of food service establishments.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/VDH-VDACS-Retail-MOU-Signed-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VDH-VDACS Retail MOU-2025<\/a> <\/strong>(grocery store food service, bakeries, seafood markets, farmer's markets, and breweries\/ wineries)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/MIlk-Frozen-Desserts-and-Food-Sanitation-Memorandum-of-Understanding.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts MOU<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pgc-3778-0-1\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-3778-0-1-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_image panel-first-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"image wp-image-17407  attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920-272x182.jpg 272w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/berries-1493905_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/div><div id=\"panel-3778-0-1-1\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_image panel-last-child\" data-index=\"2\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920-1024x680.jpg\" class=\"image wp-image-17408  attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920-272x182.jpg 272w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/06\/came-2696551_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-3778-1\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-3778-1-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-3778-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"3\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p>For information about the roles of VDH and VDACS in Milk and Milk Product Safety, see also the<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/food-safety-in-virginia\/milk-safety\/\">Milk Safety in the Commonwealth<\/a><\/strong> webpage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Virginia Department of Health (VDH)\u00a0and the Virginia Department of Agriculture &amp; Consumer Services (VDACS) work together to maintain the highest level of public health protection in food operations to keep citizens of the Commonwealth safe from foodborne illness. Code of Virginia \u00a73.2-5100 establishes VDACS\u2019s authority and responsibility for inspecting all establishments which manufacture, sell, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":31,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3778","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>VDH and VDACS Partnership and MOU Agreements - Environmental Health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/food-safety-in-virginia\/vdh-and-vdacs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VDH and VDACS Partnership and MOU Agreements - Environmental Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Virginia Department of Health (VDH)\u00a0and the Virginia Department of Agriculture &amp; Consumer Services (VDACS) work together to maintain the highest level of public health protection in food operations to keep citizens of the Commonwealth safe from foodborne illness. 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