Restaurant inspections lax: official: Says public could be at risk

July 7, 2005
Belleville Intelligencer
A1 / Front
Barry Ellsworth

Glen Hudgin, the head of inspection at the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit in Ontario, was cited as saying that the public is at risk of suffering food poisoning at area restaurants due to a lack of inspections and a questionable method of reporting health safety infractions.

Hudgin was cited as saying the local health board only allows the names of eateries to be made public if an establishment that serves food -- restaurants, hospitals, cafeterias or nursing homes -- is charged and then convicted of a food safety offence, and the names are provided to the media every three months, adding, "I think it would be appropriate for the public to have more information about our findings in the inspection of food premises."

Hudgin was further cited as saying that at one point, the inspection department had amassed as many as 400 "critical" contraventions of food safety violations, such as foodstuffs being left out at room temperature to thaw overnight, rather than proper defrosting in a refrigerator.

Many of the offenders were not charged, he said, since policy dictates that inspectors tell management to fix the problem immediately.

They then return 24 to 48 hours later to determine if the order has been followed.

If it has, charges are not usually laid and the names of the establishments are not released. Yet, the problem could reoccur undetected because inspectors only have time to check restaurants, cafeterias and nursing homes once or twice a year.

For example, within the last few months, an inspector was alerted to a possible violation by a kitchen helper who worked in a city restaurant.

Upon investigation, the inspector found a sizable quantity of food left out on a counter and ordered it thrown out. As per policy, the restaurant was not charged and the name of the establishment was never made public.

The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit in Port Hope does not have a formal policy to release names of food establishments guilty of infractions.

However, unit spokeswoman Chandra Tremblay was cited as saying anyone can come into the health unit and ask for the names and the information will be provided free of charge, but that it may take some time to provide the information, as it has to be gathered through departments.

Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health (formerly known as the health unit) does not release names.