THUNDER BAY – HEALTH – The program success has led to expanding the Dinewise program out across the district.
With the success of the DineWise food safety grade program in the City of Thunder Bay, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU) is expanding food safety grade signs to all communities served by the TBDHU.
Residents in communities outside of Thunder Bay will soon begin to see the signs in their communities over the coming months. The A, B, C or D grade on the sign will reflect eating establishments’ compliance with food safety regulations, with an A grade being the best. The DineWise program gives customers access to point-of-sale information they can use to make decisions about where they want to eat.
“The program was designed to improve compliance with food safety standards and legislation with the goal of reducing the risk of foodborne illness. With new legislation released in 2018, some form of public disclosure of food safety inspection results is now required across the entire province,” says Lee Sieswerda, manager of environmental health programs. “DineWise was very successful in the City of Thunder Bay, where it reduced the rate of all food safety infractions by 54%, and the rate of critical food safety infractions by 87%. Now we want to share that success with the rest of the communities in our district.”
The TBDHU is also continuing to work toward an online inspection results portal by the summer of 2019. This will allow the public to view eating establishments’ food safety grades, along with inspection details, without having to visit the eating establishment first.
