Manitoba website allows diners to see how restaurants fared in health inspections

06.nov.06
CP Wire

WINNIPEG -- A new website in Winnipeg lets diners know how restaurants rank when it comes to keeping clean.
The Diner's Digest site lists every restaurant closed or fined by the city for health violations in the last year.
It already lists 17 restaurants that have been closed since last December.
Some were closed for unsanitary conditions or because they suffered fire damage or flooding.
Others were reprimanded because their dishwashers weren't sterilizing plates and cutlery properly.
The story says that the Diner's Digest site was created after Winnipeg's city council voted in April to make health inspections more easily available to the public.
Until then, media outlets were forced to file access to information requests to find out which establishments had been closed.
Scott Jocelyn of the Manitoba Restaurant Association was cited as saying that local restaurateurs aren't exactly thrilled with the new website, but they want to support public health.
In Toronto, the DineSafe program allows customers to search the city's health inspection website for their neighbourhood eatery and find lengthy inspection histories.
There's also a red, yellow or green rating indicating how the restaurant fared.
Winnipeg inspects every restaurant at least once a year, more if problems require closer monitoring.