Food Safety Market Blog

In a recent CBC report on food safety citations that were handed out in Montreal, language barriers were cited as an obstacle by the head of Montreal’s food inspection department. 

In this article, language barriers are cited as a major reason why some food safety citations were handed out in Montreal.

"We have neighbourhoods where we have a challenge, sometimes caused by a language barrier, we have trouble getting our message across," she said, pointing to areas like Parc-Extension, Saint-Laurent, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Côte-des-Neiges, Chinatown and Verdun. But, in these neighbourhoods, we also have excellent restaurants, impeccable.”

-Myrta Mantzavrakos, head of Montreal food inspection department

Summer cookouts and snacks on day trips go hand-in-hand with the enjoyment of our short Canadian summers. But food can quickly become contaminated with bacteria which causes foodborne illness. The hotter it is, the more exponential the chances are that your hot dogs and hamburgers are ticking disease bombs instead of tasty treats. It is possible to enjoy summer treats safely - it just takes some prep work and extra consideration.

If you run a Canadian restaurant or other foodservice business, complying with the federal Food Retail and Food Services Code (FRFSC) can help you get most of the way to being in compliance with your local food safety regulations.

But it is more helpful to know what the actual requirements and regulations are in your area, since the FRFSC is only a policy guidance document that various provincial and municipal bodies use to form their own food safety and public health regulations.

While many things can make a food safety expert twitch, one thing that will do it every time is saying the word “buffet”. The additional food safety hazards that accompany buffet service are well worth paying attention to. Nobody wants to make guests sick, and disease-causing bacteria have a habit of multiplying exponentially at room temperature once they take root in food.

Food safety regulations in Canada are generally made and enforced at the provincial and, in some cases, municipal levels.

Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are government agencies which play separate roles when it comes to restaurants, specifically policy creation and consumer protection.

Summer is right around the corner, and for many areas this brings an army of food trucks rolling out to streets everywhere. It’s important to understand that food trucks must meet the same food safety regulations and expectations as restaurants – especially for food truck operators.

Operating a food truck presents some unique challenges - things like space considerations, cost, and hygiene.

When we’re handling food, we may pay special attention to expiry dates on dairy products and practice safe handling with meat, but the recent recall of Robin Hood flour nationwide illustrates how we should never regard any food product as “safe”, either at home or in a food service operation.

Let’s face it, most school lunches aren’t carefully planned, Pinterest-worthy creations that parents spend hours slaving over. They’re usually thrown together in the morning or the night before by busy parents. In this environment, it’s easy to throw food safety considerations out the window. Here’s a cheat sheet to help you pack better lunches, even if you are in a hurry.

There are many reasons that food safety training pays back companies that invest in it. A study undertaken by Safe Food Canada, ROI of Food Safety Training in Canadian Companies, had a look at some of the hard numbers to look at how food safety training was paying back to companies that invested in it across Canada. It was the first study of its kind in Canada, and was released in February of 2016.