Alberta restaurant inspection results online

EDMONTON-Remember that Seinfeld episode when Jerry shuddered at the thought of eating at a pizza joint because he saw the cook leave the bathroom without washing his hands?

Well, Alberta has recently introduced legislation that will prevent the province's restaurant-goers from experiencing the kind of Seinfeld moment that would leave a nasty taste in the restaurant goer's mouth and a bad impression.

Albertans will no longer have to wait until they go to a restaurant to find out whether it meets the province's standards for cleanliness and hygiene based on hand washing, food prep and storage.

As of Canada Day, Alberta Health and Wellness-implemented inspection test results are supposed to be posted on the website of each region.

"I think there was a public interest in having that information available," says John Tuckwell, Alberta Health and Wellness' communications spokesman.

"We had some instances in restaurants in Alberta where outbreaks of different foodborne illnesses have occurred and, therefore, it makes sense for the public to have access to restaurant inspection reports, so that they can make more informed decisions."

The online reports are listed alphabetically by region and include information about the past five inspections. In addition to that, Tuckwell says that no restaurant can evade the results of inspections from being posted.

"We will see all regions posting the last five inspection reports for all restaurants, so certainly, a restaurant with five good inspections will be reported and critical violations are also reported," he says.

Critical violations, in particular, will be of interest to restaurant-goers because they refer to anything that poses a health and safety risk to restaurant clientele, such as inappropriate temperature control that could affect the quality of the food being served to customers.

"If that is addressed in short order, that is a good thing," says Tuckwell. "Clearly if something that is an imminent public health risk is identified, then that would result in foreclosure...until such time that it's deemed safe."

The first out of the gate to begin posting inspection results on its website was The Calgary Health Region, which began doing so in 2006, but July 1 marked the deadline for all nine regions to publish their reports on the web.

Tuckwell says that several of the province's restaurants have responded positively to the initiative.

"Certainly restaurants with a good record don't have a problem with it and it's not meant to penalize anyone," he says.

"It's strictly information that's being made available to restaurant-goers. The department's advice to people checking the reports is to look at the track record. You may see a violation on one report, but if the next report says the problem's [been] cleaned up, that's just as good in our minds as if it was in good standing."

According to CRFA vice-president Mark von Shellwitz, the online inspection disclosures will reveal that most restaurants meet Alberta Public Health standards and will be deemed clean and safe.

"Where there are problems, the disclosure system will identify what they are, allowing the customer to decide if the infraction will affect their dining code," says von Shellwitz.

Because old habits sometimes die hard and those who are used to going to specific restaurants might not want to avoid going to them regardless of what the results of the inspection are, the legislation isn't expected to drastically alter people's dining experience.

"I think certainly there's a section of society that will look at [the results] and others will go where they have a recommendation from a friend or that sort of thing," says Tuckwell. "But for those people that are interested in those kinds of things, those results are now available."

Under the Alberta Public Health Act, restaurant inspections occur before the opening of a new facility, every four to six months following an opening and more frequently if the restaurant fails to pass previous inspections.

The cost for implementing such a measure is also nominal according to Tuckwell, who says that posting restaurant inspection results on the web only requires some regions to invest in upgrading their Internet capabilities and databases for collecting reports and data."

Inspection results can be found on each of the nine Alberta region websites as well as the Alberta Health and Wellness website at www.health.alberta.ca/public by clicking on the Restaurant Inspections link on the left side of the page.