PREPARED BY: Environmental Health
DATE: 2025-09-18
SUBJECT: WECHU Food Safety Inspection Dashboard
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) conducts inspections of food premises under the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act and in accordance with Food Safety Protocol, 2019. These inspections play a key role in preventing the incidence of foodborne illness in our community.
Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) visit all food premises that prepare, serve, sell or offer for sale food to the public to conduct routine inspections, complaint-based investigations, and where required, re-inspections. During inspections and/or investigations, PHIs ensure that food premises owners and food handlers are following the requirements outlined in the Ontario Food Premises Regulation (O. Reg. 493/17). The failure to meet the minimum requirements set out in the legislation is referred to as an infraction. If any infractions are identified during an inspection, the PHI will provide education and complete re-inspections to ensure compliance is achieved. If the infractions continue or pose an immediate risk to the safety of the food being served to the public, legal action may be taken, such as issuing tickets or orders to close the premises.
After an inspection is completed, a written and signed report is provided to the operator. Inspection results on each routine, re-inspection and substantiated complaint-based inspection of food premises are made available to the public through our WECHU disclosure website within two weeks after the inspection. The disclosure website provides quick and easy access to reports from inspections and enforcement-related activities conducted but is subject to some limitations such as one search option by facility name only and lacks a visual summary of infraction trends.
Food safety disclosure is an important role of public health. Comprehensive inspection disclosure strategies help ensure restaurants maintain high food safety standards, reduces the risk of foodborne illnesses, and allows consumers to make informed choices.
DISCUSSION
As a part of ongoing quality improvement in the area of food safety, the WECHU has developed a new user-friendly and interactive dashboard. The dashboard will be accessible directly from the WECHU website, providing the public and the food premises with quick and easy access to food safety inspections data.
The Dashboard will consolidate food safety inspection results, making it easier for the public to view inspection outcomes and for food premises to access their inspection history. Some key features of the dashboard include:
- searchable databases of inspected food premises
- advanced filtering options as well as visual display of frequency of inspections
- inspection outcomes, identified issue details, and issue trends/patterns among food premises
- a map-based interface that helps to explore facilities as well as identify other inspected locations nearby.
The dashboard will provide easy-to-understand access to food safety inspection results for the public and enable residents to more easily make informed choices for themselves and for their families.
The Food Safety Inspection Dashboard launch is scheduled for September 17, 2025, and will be updated every two weeks. Full inspection information will continue to be accessible on the current WECHU disclosure website.