Inspectors playing catch-up as COVID demands ease, eateries ramp up

Pandemic backlog, summer festivals and the rise of home-based businesses. London-area health inspectors are busy making the rounds to eateries in the region, refocusing their efforts on the key public health program after years of pandemic-related disruptions. Our Jennifer Bieman reports.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, health units provincewide quickly reassigned staff to respond. With the emergency phase of the pandemic over, health units are ratcheting up many of their core programs, including restaurant inspections.

“It has been busy,” said David Pavletic, food safety and healthy environments program manager.

“Our regular team of health inspectors is back to full compliment and we’re out inspecting.”

Summer festivals and special events, and business trends such as markets and shared kitchens, have put a demand on the health unit’s 12 food inspectors, he said.

As of Thursday, the Middlesex-London Health Unit has about 65 food service facilities awaiting inspections and rating: green for pass, yellow for conditional pass or red for closed. A small number of establishments have last inspection dates listed in late 2019 or early 2020.

Southwestern Public Health, the health unit in Elgin and Oxford counties, has 11 public health inspectors who handle everything from environmental health and water testing to restaurants, farms that employ migrant workers and personal service business inspections, environmental health program manager Amy Pavletic said.

Southwestern has about 1,740 restaurants in its territory, she said. During the most intense parts of the pandemic, the health unit had just one environmental health inspector responding to urgent health hazards, like water issues and foodborne illness.

“We’re making it a priority to make sure we complete all our routine inspections in 2023 to get back on track from a bit of a derailment during the pandemic,” she said.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit has been receiving many calls and complaints from the public about home-based businesses preparing food for public consumption.

“I’d encourage people to go to the DineSafe website to see if the business has been inspected,” David Pavletic said. “If people are preparing food at home for sale to the public within London, that’s currently not permitted due to zoning restrictions.”

Some of the home-based kitchens crop up in online ordering services or social media apps, he said.

During the pandemic, Southwestern Public Health also saw more people opening up businesses in their homes, Amy Pavletic said.

“We’re trying to keep on top of places that might not know it’s a requirement to submit a request for inspection for an operating food premises,” she said.

London health unit officials do an assessment of food service facilities, giving them a risk level – high, medium or low – depending on the amount of food handling going on, the types of food being prepared, the population served and past compliance, David Pavletic said.

Food service spots that are deemed low risk by health officials and have a strong history of compliance are inspected yearly, he said. High risk places are inspected three times a year and medium risk spots are seen twice a year.

“We’re prioritizing the high and medium risk food premises,” David Pavletic said. “There are a lot of new, competing priorities and we’re trying to focus on where the work is required and trying to meet those needs.”

Last year, Southwestern Public Health put inspections at high risk settings – places with vulnerable populations like long-term care homes, hospitals, daycares and eateries with a history of non-compliance – at the top of their to-do list, Amy Pavletic said .

“Now in 2023, we’re really trying to just get everyone else on board in having a recent inspection,” she said. “If they were low risk. . . and haven’t been seen for a couple of years because of the pandemic, we’re making sure they’re visited in 2023.”

The London-area health unit has issued just one closure order to a food service establishment since the start of the year. Four closure orders have been issued for pools in 2023.

Overall in London and Middlesex County, compliance with public health rules by restaurants has been good, David Pavletic said.

“The food industry has experienced a lot of challenges, whether it’s staffing or supply chain issues. We’re really trying to focus on assisting and supporting operators to achieve compliance, through a lot of consultative work,” he said.

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