ONTARIO: Bad cafs

08.mar.11
London Free Press

One third of London's English high schools (that’s the London in Ontario, Canada) racked up food-safety violations in recent inspections, nearly half the infractions serious enough to cause food poisoning, a health official says.
Many of the cafeteria infractions were minor, but nearly half were critical, said David White of the Middlesex-London Health Unit.
"There's a mixed bag, but the critical items are all more temperature-related so they could lead to food poisoning. You could have a had a food-borne illness at any of these places (with critical violations). If you have a product that is unchecked in the (temperature) danger zone, you could get ill."
While all eight written-up schools passed the inspections, the idea that places where thousands of teenagers eat daily didn't get spotless bills of health will likely raise some questions among parents - if not students.
"Obviously, as a parent you want your child eating healthy food and safe food," said Darlene Snyders, head of the Thames Valley home and school association and the mother of an H.B. Beal secondary school student.
"The last thing you want is them coming home from school sick because of the food they ate at school."
Offences discovered by health inspectors ranged in seriousness from a case of beverages left on the floor, to eggs left out at room temperature and meat thawing in a sink full of water.
Inspectors record violations as "critical" or "non-critical."
Some cafeterias had more than one critical item; others had only non-critical items.
Four of the schools - H.B. Beal, South, Thames and G.A. Wheable - are in the Thames Valley District school board, and three - Regina Mundi, St.
Thomas Aquinas and John Paul II - in the London District Catholic board. The eighth school is Al Taqwa, an Islamic high school in London.