Tag Archives: Toronto

Fancy food isn’t safe food: Pusateri’s, Toronto’s most expensive grocer closed by rats, roaches

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Pusateri’s, proudly billed as Toronto’s most expensive grocer — on its shelves are the best quality fruits, vegetables, meats, imported canned goods and a range of prepared food – has been closed by Toronto Public Health due to poor sanitation and pest infestation.

“It is up to the operator to improve their services and arrange a reinspection with the Public Health Inspector,” Toronto Public Health spokeswoman Rishma Govani confirmed to the Star by email Thursday afternoon.

Pusateri’s general manager John Mastroianni, however, said the store was closed for “general maintenance.”

“It’s not rodents,” Mastroianni said, repeatedly insisting that the issue was equipment related and “general maintenance.”

Govani said specifically that the closure was due to poor sanitation and pest infestation.

The inspection arose as a result of a public complaint, she said adding the pest infestation included rats as well as cockroaches.

When confronted again with the confirmation from Toronto Public Health that the store was in fact closed due to poor sanitation and pests, Mastroianni admitted cockroaches had been found in the store.

Ontario’s real raw milk hero

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As a child driving past the Adelaide Hunter Hoodless memorial in St. George, Ontario, just north of my Brantford home, I had no idea who she was and why she had so many names.

But more than a century ago, after her youngest son, John, died from drinking contaminated milk as an infant, Hoodless embarked on a campaign to have all milk heat-treated — pasteurized — to kill potentially harmful bacteria, making her one of Canada’s earliest food safety proponents.

Tracey Tyler of the Toronto Star writes that Hoodless grew up on a farm in St. George, near Brantford,and is sometimes described as one of the country’s most effective but least-known social reformers.

After her son’s death in 1889, she devoted herself to educating women in the “domestic sciences” and giving them the institutional backing they needed to protect their families.

Her work led to the formation of Women’s Institutes, home economics programs in schools and the creation of the Macdonald Institute at the University of Guelph.

Toronto passed a bylaw in 1915 requiring all milk sold to be pasteurized and that became mandatory across Ontario in 1938. The Star was a prominent advocate for pasteurization, and remains so today, with the publication of an editorial insisting there is no sound scientific evidence supporting the claim that raw milk improves people’s health, but a mountain of data showing it can be dangerous. It’s especially risky for children, pregnant women and the elderly.

Cantaloupes from Toronto retailer may contain salmonella

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 The always helpful Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned the public this morning not to eat cantaloupes sold from Food Basics, located at 2452 Sheppard Ave. E., North York (that’s near Toronto), Ontario on September 12, 2011 because they may be contaminated with Salmonella.

No word on where the cantaloupes originated, why the warning was issued, if there was a positive salmonella test, or who did the testing.

Even more helpful, the affected cantaloupes were sold unwrapped. There is no lot code sticker, UPC or product name on the individual cantaloupes.

The retailer, Metro Ontario Inc, Etobicoke, Ontario, is voluntarily recalling the affected product from the marketplace.

Canada-wide outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 linked to veal liver; feds won’t say how many are sick

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Once again, the communication geniuses at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have buried the lede, announcing halfway through a recall of veal liver that “there have been reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.

“This is an ongoing food safety investigation. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is investigating a multi-provincial outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in collaboration with provincial health authorities as well as federal health partners including CFIA and Health Canada.”

That’s a lot of agencies. I wonder how many people are sick and where?

CFIA and White Veal Meat Packers Ltd. (Est. 412) of Toronto are warning the public not to consume the grain fed veal liver described below because the product may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

The following White Valley brand Grain Fed Veal Liver products, sold in boxes weighing approximately 5 kg or approximately 25 kg are affected by this alert:

Format UPC Lot Distributed to:
1 individually vacuum packaged or 5 individually poly packed pieces per box 90059441201142 110601 British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec
1 individually vacuum packaged or 5 individually poly packed pieces per box 90059441201142 110603 British Columbia
5 individually poly packed, 1 pieces per box 90059441101145 110601 Quebec **

Retailers are advised to check the lot code on the packaging or with their supplier to determine if they have the affected product. Retailers may have sliced and sold the veal liver prepackaged or through the store’s meat counter.

Consumers who have purchased grain fed veal liver in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec or beef liver at the one identified Quebec retail location, between June 1st and June 14, 2011 inclusive, are advised to contact their retailer to determine if they have the affected product. Consumers who may have purchased this product and still have it in their freezers are advised not to consume it.

I wouldn’t eat there: Toronto launches Underground Market

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There are reasons public health rules and regulations exist: people get sick from the food they eat, and inspection, along with training, provides some minimal assurance that whoever’s doing the cooking has paid attention – a little.

The Globe and Mail (that’s in Toronto, in Canada) reports that Hassel Aviles says an 11,000 square feet of unfinished industrial space is the perfect place for fine dining. And soon it will be home to the city’s newest food experiment she’s been planning since the spring, the Toronto Underground Market. Savoury smells will fill the gigantic room – those of grilled sausage with mustard seed, maybe, or pork tacos – along with 30 to 40 vendors and one long, communal dinner table set between two kilns.

The evening of Saturday, Sept. 24 will see the debut of the Toronto version of the San Francisco Underground Market, the massively popular, not-quite-legal gathering of amateur chefs begun by wild-food co-operative ForageSF and its founder, Iso Rabins. Run out of private homes and warehouses, it was a covert food happening where home cooks and local foragers could offer their wares even if they couldn’t afford licenses or commercial kitchens. It was the talk of food lovers everywhere – until it was unceremoniously shut down by authorities last month.

“It’s really important for me to ensure that this is a legal event,” says Ms. Aviles.
The idea of the market, of course, is to allow aspiring chefs to sell their creations without the barrier of having to rent a costly commercial kitchen – a must for anyone who sells food to the public, such as at a farmers’ market. Ms. Aviles also hopes it will be a forum for street food that reflects the city’s multicultural makeup.

So how is that legal?

There will be strict rules. Almost all the food preparation will take place in Evergreen’s commercial, fully inspected events kitchen – a key condition of keeping the market within municipal and provincial public-health regulations. Vendors with access to an offsite commercial kitchen may use it, but most won’t have that luxury. Either Ms. Aviles or another organizer with a city food handler’s certificate must be present in the Evergreen kitchen while every dish is being prepared. All ingredients must come from approved distributors, says Suzanne Lychowyd, healthy environments manager at Toronto Public Health.

Like sprout seeds?

Toronto Public Health accepts Samuel Crumbine Consumer Protection Award at NEHA conference

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Would-be rock star, friend and colleague Sylvanus Thompson didn’t like the last picture I posted so he made sure he sent me a new one.

Toronto Public Health received the Crumbine Consumer Protection Award, consisting of a bronze Crumbine medallion and engraved plate, at the Annual Educational Conference of the National Environmental Health Association, on June 19 in Columbus, Ohio. This was the first time in its 56 year history that the award was presented to a local food safety jurisdiction outside of the United States. As a Crumbine Award winner, Toronto Public Health joins an elite group of local public health agencies that have demonstrated "unsurpassed achievements in providing outstanding food protection services in the community."

The selection jury noted that they were particularly impressed by:
? Innovative and new ideas in the realm of consumer protection with technically savvy items like a phone application for consumers
? Transparency, with daily website posts
? Internationally recognized program with strong impacts felt across the United States and elsewhere

Toronto won for its restaurant inspection disclosure system – red, yellow, green signs on the doors.

Sewing needle found in lettuce in Toronto

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A two−inch sewing needle was found pierced into the spine of lettuce in a Toronto grocery store, specifically Andy Boy Romaine lettuce hearts.

The Toronto Police Service advises the public to use caution and check any pre−packaged lettuce for foreign objects.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416−808−4100, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com , text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook.

Germany plans hygiene ratings for restaurants

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Spiegel Online reports that Germany is about to implement a restaurant inspection disclosure system, based on the traffic-light – red-yellow-green pioneered by Toronto – but the crack journalists forgot to mention Toronto.

Consumers worried about filthy kitchens full of rotting food will soon know just how clean German restaurants are thanks to a new hygiene rating system set to begin in 2012. A "traffic light" scheme will show which eateries are spick-and-span — and which have nasties lurking under the cupboards.

On Thursday, consumer ministers from Germany’s federal states, with the exception of the southern state of Bavaria, agreed to institute a color-coded hygiene rating system that will be clearly posted at the entry of every restaurant in the country.

The "traffic light" scheme will indicate how closely each restaurant adheres to health standards. Green rankings will go to eateries with the highest marks for cleanliness. Yellow will indicate some concerns, and red will point to grave violations. The exact graphic incarnation of the ratings remains undecided, though.

The decision came after more than a year of internal wrangling over whether the scheme should mirror Denmark’s food safety "Smiley system," which has been in place since 2001.

"Exemplary establishments can use their rating to advertize, while those that aren’t as good have incentive to improve, and the black sheep have nowhere to hide," the national association of consumer initiatives said.

The German Federation for Food Law and Food Science (BLL) said the program could only work if states were willing to conduct more frequent tests and spend more money.

Meanwhile heavy criticism came from the national hotel and gastronomy association DEHOGA, which said current regulations are sufficient. "This system is built to endanger people’s existence," they said in a statement.
 

Red yellow or green? Toronto restaurant grading program wins international food safety honor

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“We are kind of rock stars in the public health world.”

Sylvanus Thompson, Toronto Public Health quality assurance manager, as quoted in the Toronto Star.

Sylvanus (below, left, exactly as shown, in 2005), you’re not a rock star.

No one in public health is a rock star. You can be a rock star in your own mind, you can be like Chapman and admit it now and then, you can be like Roy Costa and actually play in a rock band, but proclaiming you’re like a rock star in a major newspaper isn’t cool.

Next, you’ll be declaring, “I am a golden god.”

Sylvanus hung out in my lab a bit back in the Guelph days, and I supervised the final written report for his MS, and helped out as Toronto developed its red-yellow-green restaurant inspection disclosure system.

And congrats on that, because on the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking restaurant inspection disclosure program, Toronto Public Health has become the first non-U.S. health department to win a prestigious award for “unsurpassed achievement in providing outstanding food protection.”

The city’s health department will receive the 56-year-old Samuel J. Crumbine Consumer Protection Award for DineSafe, an internationally recognized program that posts inspection results for Toronto eateries online and in their front windows.

The health department’s 63-page application includes references to the 2000 Toronto Star investigation, Dirty Dining, that sparked the creation of the program.

(Disclosure: it also includes a letter from me).

“We showed the turnaround from Dirty Dining to DineSafe,” said Thompson.

The system has been adopted by health departments in the U.S., U.K. and other areas of Canada. Health officials routinely travel to Toronto from Australia, Japan and China to study the model for their own cities.

Toronto Public Health officials will receive the award in Columbus, Ohio, on June 18.

But that doesn’t make you a rock star.
 

Dirty egg-sucking dog: illegal eggs flood Toronto

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Tens of thousands of illegal eggs — some covered in fecal matter and feathers — have emerged in a crackdown on Toronto-area food retailers and wholesalers, prompting public health concerns and pending charges against nine companies so far.

Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star revisits the food beat to report that at least six food establishments have charges pending:

• Sharable Bakery, 240 Alton Towers Circle.
• Greystone Bakery, 6 Greystone Walk Dr.
• Farm Fresh Supermarket, 4466 Sheppard Ave. E.
• Casa Imperial Fine Chinese Cuisine, 4125 Steeles Ave E.
• ABC Bakery, 3618 Victoria Park Ave.
• Besmeats Wholesale Ltd., a food distributor at 110 Bynamic Dr.

“The person who gave me eggs did not write ‘ungraded eggs’ on the box. We are innocent,” said Besmeats manager Jesslyn Tio.

“It’s not easy to get egg dealers in town. Those people just knocked on my door. I don’t know them. I don’t want ungraded eggs to be on the market. I eat the eggs too.”

Tio said she can now see a clear difference between inspected eggs and what she’s been supplying her clients, mainly bakeries.

Inspectors believe at least some of the eggs came from a distribution warehouse in Scarborough under investigation.

The unnamed facility was filled with more than 100,000 ungraded eggs when inspectors visited last Friday, said Toronto Public Health food safety manager Jim Chan. They were seized and destroyed, he said.

“Some of the eggs still have fecal matter on the egg shells, quite a bit of dirt and even feathers inside the boxes which are all indications of ungraded eggs,” said Chan.

“We brought CFIA (the Canadian Food Inspection Agency) in and they confirmed they were ungraded eggs.”

All eggs sold beyond farm gates in Ontario must be graded at federally licensed facilities. The process is designed to ensure eggs are properly washed and free of hairline cracks — often invisible to the eye — that open up the potential for salmonella and other pathogens to enter.

Rodger Dunlop, manager of regulatory compliance with the provincial agriculture ministry, would offer no comment on the investigation, saying only that it is ongoing.

Way to be forthcoming, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

B.C. health officials have traced an outbreak of about 650 salmonella cases over the past three years — a 300 per cent increase since 2007 — to egg consumption including ungraded eggs.

Statistics Canada figures show about 380,000 dozen eggs produced in Ontario each month are “leakers and rejects.” But the agency does not track how many eggs unfit for human consumption end up in the underground marketplace.

Those facing charges this week would say little about their eggs.