Fraser Health temporarily shut down two New Westminster restaurants last year, but that doesn’t mean health inspectors didn’t find plenty amiss in other eateries as well.
The health authority conducted nearly 500 restaurant inspections in the city in 2014.
Sixty-eight establishments were deemed a “moderate” health hazard after routine inspections, while 19 were seen as a “high” hazard, usually because of food handling, food temperature and cleaning violations.
Five local restaurants earned high-hazard ratings on more than one inspection in 2014 – La Spaghetteria, Fireside Pub, Ki Sushi, Okonomi Sushi on Sixth Street and Thai New West – but neither of the two restaurants temporarily shut down by the health authority were on that list.
Pho Maxima on 20th Street – closed temporarily in the spring – was deemed only a moderate health risk during a routine inspection in March, while the Sixth Street Taco Del Mar was assessed high-hazard only once before being shut down for a few days in June.
The latest inspections – in April and July respectively – assessed both as “low” hazard.
Gordon Stewart, Fraser Health manager of health protection for Burnaby and New Westminster, couldn’t say specifically why either facility was shut down while others with high-hazard assessments stayed open, but said the health authority’s progressive enforcement model is generally based on “education first.”
“Normally we work with the operators,” he told the Record. “We try to get them into compliance. Our whole role is not to walk in, find infractions and shut people down.”
Besides routine inspections, the health authority conducts follow-ups and issues violation tickets with fines to operators who fail to change their ways. Shut downs and compliance meetings are the next step, according to Stewart.
But Fraser Health would move a lot quicker, he said, if inspectors found anything really serious.
“We wouldn’t go through that process if we walked in on a routine inspection or on a complaint inspection and the place couldn’t handle food safely,” Stewart said. “It’d be like an automatic closure. If they had no power or no water or their dishwasher’s broken or they had a flood and there’s sewage backing up. If there’s anything serious, we shut them down right away.”
Unless there is a major infestation resulting in a gross contamination of food, pests are not usually a reason for restaurant shut downs, according to Stewart.
Nearly 70 New West restaurants inspected last year were deemed not to be free of pests and another 70 revealed conditions “that may allow entrance/habouring/breeding of pests.”
According to Stewart, those findings could mean anything from a minor fruit-fly or ant problem to the presence of rats, mice or cockroaches.
If operators are taking steps to control them, however, and keep them out of the food, pests are not considered a critical violation.
For a list of New West restaurant health inspections, visit www.healthspace.ca/fha/food.
