Surrey restaurants safer says health authority: Fewer Surrey eateries closed for health violations

July 9, 2005
Surrey Now
12
Brooke Larsen

Inderjeet Gill, manager of health protection for Fraser Health, was cited as saying that the health authority shut down 14 Surrey, B.C. restaurants between January and June of 2005, down from 40 closures for all of 2004, adding, "Restaurant operators in Surrey are getting more and more cautious and are starting to pay more attention to food safety. Obviously that means better sanitation and less chance of food-borne illness."

The story says that the health authority has 12 inspectors checking restaurants in Surrey for things like for kitchen cleanliness, food safety, and infestations.

Gill was further cited as attributing the change to a reorganization of the inspection process in 2003, adding, "Basically we changed things to make sure there was more time for inspectors to do their work. Now the inspectors have a lot more contact with restaurant owners and the owners are being more careful."

Gills says the number of shutdowns jumped from 16 to 40 between 2003 and 2004 because inspectors weren't catching all the problems in 2003.

Inspectors visit each Surrey restaurant twice a year and when they receive complaints.
Gill's office receives an average of 15 to 20 complaints per month.