Part 1: Waterloo Region restaurant inspectors issuing fewer charges
Nearly all of the 2,500 or so restaurants in Waterloo Region were inspected in 2012.
With restaurants considered high-risk inspected three times per year, 25 local health inspectors carried out more than 5,000 inspections over the course of the year.
Out of all those inspections, officials laid a total of 23 charges against 18 restaurants, while another three were closed outright.
For comparison’s sake, only 4,700 inspections were carried out in 2011, but they led to a total of 38 charges against 21 restaurants, with one other eatery ordered closed.
Chris Komorowski, the region’s manager of food safety, says it’s not surprising so few restaurants merit serious consequences.
“It’s only when the education and raising awareness option has been exhausted that we would move toward issuing tickets or taking any type of enforcement action,” he tells CTV News.
“We’re about preventing disease and outbreaks – so if we’re not in the news with that, then we’re doing our job.”
Inspectors say the most common issues they deal with include food stored improperly and at the wrong temperature.
A recent inspection of Lin’s Garden on Laurelwood Drive in Waterloo turned up 13 infractions, including a lack of easily readable thermometers, a shortage of hand-washing and improper use and storage of clean utensils.
Inspectors laid a charge, and owner Yuan Lin says he quickly moved to fix the issues that wer raised.
“It’s all fixed,” he says.
“Tables are more clean, dishes are more clean. It only takes a couple of days to fix it.”
Part 2: Majority of foodborne illnesses come from restaurants
The last thing restaurant owners want is to make their clients sick, but health experts say more Canadians pick up foodborne illnesses while eating out than they do anywhere else.
The Centre for Food in Canada says nearly seven million Canadians acquire foodborne illnesses each year, with the majority of those coming from restaurants and cafeterias.
Owners of local restaurants say they take food safety seriously, but can sometimes be overwhelmed by all the rules and regulations they have to follow.
“We’re not a big business, so we can’t afford to hire 10 people to make sure that the dishes are all done on time,” says Tanya Quigg, a waitress at The Fiddle and Firkin on King Street in Cambridge.
That restaurant was ordered to close last year after health inspectors found a broken fridge, but Quigg says the restaurant was planning to shut down until the fridge could be repaired anyhow.
“The day that she came in, the fridge completely shut down on us,” she tells CTV News.
“We were going to close down anyway because you can’t run without a fridge.”
The fridge was quickly fixed and the restaurant reopened soon after.
“Everything’s gone back to normal and now we’ve got a new health inspector, so cross our fingers on this one,” says Quigg.
Despite some objections, food inspectors say, the rules are in place for a reason.
“People eat out every day, all the time, so they want to know that it’s safe and it’s healthy,” says Jessica Morris, manager of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.
Part 3: Fact and Fiction: Simple ways to protect yourself from food poisoning
If you’ve ever had food poisoning, chances are you immediately did a mental search for where you may have contracted the illness.
There are many myths about what can make you sick, but there are also easy ways you can protect yourself at restaurants.
Before you order your meal, make a quick trip to the washroom.
According to experts, if the bathrooms aren’t clean, it’s a sign management is cutting corners elsewhere.
They also say a restaurant’s most popular item is usually the safest.
“If a dish is not that popular is may be sitting around a bit longer,” says Philippe Saraiva, an instructor with the culinary program at Conestoga College. “Or, if an item requires a long process time and is not a popular item, it might be sitting around.”
But Saraiva notes there are no guarantees when it comes to safety.
“A lot of people think if you're ordering a vegetarian or vegan meal, that you have no risk. There aew some risks associated with that,” he says.
Other common dangers include raw chicken and the raw eggs often used in salad dressings made in house.
Ground meat can also be risky – it spoils faster, so it has to be stored at the right temperature.
“If a server has no idea upon how that was made, manufactured, how long it's been sitting around; that might be an item to avoid,” Saraiva says.
Last year, about 1,200 people graduated from Conestoga's food handler training program, a significant increase over previous years.
That means reduced risk for consumers, but at least half of foodborne illnesses are picked up in public eating places.
Epidemiologist Shannon Majowicz says feces in food in the main culprit.
“When you sit down at a restaurant, there are the things that can happen that can really gross you out, and there are the things that can happen that can put you at real risk for foodborne illness,” she says.
Things like spots on cutlery are not dangerous. However, lipstick on a cup can pose a risk and should be sent back.
“When I sit down in a restaurant and I find a hair in my food I'm pretty revolted, but I don't necessarily feel like I'm at an increased risk,” Majowicz says. “But if I sit there and my chicken comes and it's pink, I will absolutely send it back to be more properly cooked.”
The bottom line, according to experts, is to look around the restaurant, and ask questions.
You may be surprised by what you discover.
