Food safety regulatory folks have been moving towards risk-based inspections for about the past 20 years. But often the risk-based infractions aren’t nearly as sexy as the yuck factor stuff. Parent Central, a section of the Toronto Star‘s website focuses on the not-so-risky stuff. I start to get concerned when I see stuff like poor handwashing, cross-contamination or foods held at incorrect temps. Old potato peelers, not so much.

According to Parent Central,

The DineSafe infractions include improper water temperature in the dishwasher, an old potato peeler that needed to be thrown out, butcher blocks that required refinishing and a dirty oven exhaust hood.

Toronto food safety Superman and barfblog friend, Sylvanus Thompson even makes an appearance,

But high school students shouldn’t be afraid of eating at the cafeterias, said Sylvanus Thompson of Toronto Public Health.

“If there is a health hazard, we would close the establishment,” Thompson said.

The violations at both schools happened under the watch of their culinary arts programs, said Toronto school board spokeswoman Zoya McGroarty. At Central Tech, this food is not served to students and only occasionally sold to staff, she said.

Both schools received a “conditional pass” grade from inspectors and the kitchens remained open. All infractions were either rectified immediately or are in the process of being fixed, McGroarty said, adding the board takes such matters very seriously.