The Middlesex-London Health Unit’s new food premises inspection disclosure website is giving local residents easy access to the results of compliance checks conducted by public health inspectors.
Hundreds of local establishments are available for viewing, including 60 sites on the University of Western Ontario campus. Director of Hospitality Services Frank Miller says with food safety being top of mind, there are a lot of pluses in this new website.
“I, for one, am in favour of a system that grades restaurants and I’m glad London is doing it,” he says. “I think it will make our restaurants more aware of their accountability and create a sense of urgency in rectifying things.”
The health unit’s new disclosure website allows users to search for food premises in any of three ways: by the community in which they are located, by the first letter of the restaurant name or by keyword. By selecting an establishment, visitors can see the results for inspections conducted since June 1, 2009. The number of inspections will continue to grow and results will remain posted for at least two years.
Miller says with the university’s own inspections, a third-party audit twice a year and franchise owners keeping tabs, the health unit’s involvement simply increases the awareness.
“It’s like we have four or five sets of eyes on our operations. I think it’s a good thing and makes our people more aware,” says Miller, adding his concern is if there’s a mistake, to have the mindset of “let’s fix it right away.”
“It creates for us a continued culture of food safety here, which we have (worked on) over the last few years. The ongoing partnership we have with the health unit has given them a sense of confidence in what we do as well.”
As outlined in the new Ontario Public Health Standards, local boards of health are required to establish procedures for the disclosure of information from food premises compliance inspection reports. Eleven of 36 Ontario health units have comprehensive food safety disclosure systems on their websites.
The next step for the Middlesex-London Health Unit is incorporating the ‘red, yellow, green’ rating system, expect later this spring.
The new website for Middlesex-London can be viewed at https://inspection.healthunit.com.