Food Premises Inspection Policy

1 Mar 2007

The Issue:

The number of individual food premises inspection disclosure systems that are evolving in Ontario (some are already in place in Toronto, Peel, Halton, Hamilton Waterloo and Brantford with more ready to launch) threatens to confuse operators and consumers alike and presents an unnecessary hurdle to competition in Ontario's commercial retail and service food sector.

Furthermore, individual local Boards of Health in municipalities across Ontario are presently being mandated under the Health Protection and Promotion Act to provide certain programs and services outlined in a document called the Mandatory Health Programs and Services Guidelines (MHPSGs).

The well intentioned goal of the Food Safety Mandatory Program is to improve the health of the population by reducing the incidence of food-borne illness by ensuring the food is stored, prepared, served and distributed in a manner consistent with accepted public health practices.

It is our view that this issue could lead to a wide variety of applications across the province that will be inconsistent & too costly to implement on an individual basis.

Background:

Municipalities in Ontario went through a similar experience with the No-Smoking By-laws that at first were being implemented independently city to city and caused considerable turmoil in the marketplace. This turmoil only subsided when the Province decided it was time to administer the regulations uniformly across the Province.

The MHPSGs have just recently been re-written and are now referred to as the Ontario Public Health Standards (the Standards). Under these new standards, programs will be delivered in accordance with yet to be developed “protocols”. One such protocol will be the “Food Premises Inspection Protocol”.

The committee that re-wrote the Standards has suggested that the Food Premises Inspection Protocol could include a ‘food premises inspection disclosure system to include minimum disclosure requirements'. It seems apparent that the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) has contemplated the development of such a disclosure system.

The problem with individual municipalities designing their own programs is the likelihood that there will be a confusing array of systems that will be implemented leading to mass confusion by domestic and foreign diners/travelers and food service operators alike.

In response to public feedback captured through the Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System (RRFSS) survey conducted in London and Middlesex County between October and May of 2006, the following excerpts will indicate how varied the responses may be in any given community and how different those responses will look when transformed into local regulations.

• 90.5% of adults felt the availability of restaurant inspection information would influence their decision about where to eat
• The majority of adults (61%) thought that posting of inspection information about restaurants, fast food places and take-outs should be compulsory
• 84% of adults said that they would like to be able to get information about food safety inspection findings for restaurants, fast food places and take-outs
• A large majority of adults (88%) who said they would want to get inspection information preferred inspection findings from all restaurants rather than just those who were charged or closed by the Health Unit
• The most popular ways cited by adults to get this information was:

47% at the restaurant

25% upon request

22% posted on the restaurant door

28% on the internet, and

16% in the newspaper

Recommendations:

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce strongly urges the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to immediately stand down its instructions to local Health Units to adopt local policies and regulations to address this issue and instead move expeditiously to deliver a Province-wide protocol for a Food Premises Inspection Disclosure System that can be delivered and administered uniformly across the entire province.

← Return to reference library