Some of the most common violations committed by Ottawa food establishments during public health and food safety inspections included failure to protect food from contamination and failing to use thermometers to check cooking temperatures, according to an analysis of the City of Ottawa’s inspection data.
Food establishments most frequently violated a maintenance bylaw, meaning the food premises weren’t kept in clean and good condition. Second on the list was failing to keep equipment in the right condition, while the third was not holding foods at the right temperatures, whether it was reheating or freezing food items.
The fourth most common violation though was not being able to protect food from contamination. City inspectors found that a total of 757 food establishments from 2015 to 2017 were found to be “not in compliance” with the bylaw set out in Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotions Act. Each violation is considered either critical, semi-critical, or non-critical. According to the OPH website, failure to protect food from contamination is considered a critical violation, along with other infractions like not storing food at the right temperatures, or not ensuring the hand wash station is used only for hand washing.
Number of Businesses in Violation of Each Bylaw
Namaste India, a restaurant located in Old Ottawa South, topped the list of highest number of violations for 2016 with eight violations on eight separate occasions, and even requiring enforcement action to be taken on their Dec. 21, 2016, inspection. Inspectors picked up on a range of infractions, like not sanitizing the surfaces of equipment often enough and not using special washing solutions to clean large utensils.
Barbara Smith, a public health inspector with OPH, says that when action is taken, it usually means an inspector has issued a ticket to the restaurant. She says at first, inspectors will give a warning and provide the restaurant the chance to correct the error, but if the problem occurs repeatedly, a fine could be issued.
Meanwhile, Silver Spoon Thai Cuisine in the Carlingwood area has the most infractions for 2017 for food not protected from contamination, with four violations recorded during inspections done this past January, April, May, and the most recent on August 24. During their August inspection, inspectors found that food items were stored too close to the floor and that certain foods weren’t stored at the right temperature.
Both restaurants declined to comment.
Irena Knezevic, a professor at Carleton University who specializes in food and health regulations, says that concern over food safety in restaurants is valid, but that for the most part Ottawans are safe. She says that it is not necessarily hard to meet the rule of protecting food from contamination, but that the criterion is broad.
“I think that individuals often run a greater risk of eating contaminated food at their own homes than in restaurants. We don’t exactly have a torrent of food poisoning incidents in Ottawa, and these violations indicate that establishments are being scrutinized, or else they would not be ‘caught.’”
Generally, Knezevic considers eating out to be safe in Ottawa and that a violation may not be as critical as it sounds.
Smith agrees that the bylaw is written broadly, as it is meant to protect food from a variety of potential contamination causes because there are so many factors to consider in restaurants.
Emily Reed, a Carleton University student, is wary of the food safety in some Ottawa restaurants after suffering from a food poisoning incident several years ago while eating out. She is glad to hear that restaurants are being inspected often by the City and that they are catching errors.
“As a customer,” she says, “I’m definitely reassured.”