On March 19, the Chatime at UTSC received a “conditional pass” from Toronto Public Health’s (TPH) Dine Safe program after being given two significant infractions for employee hygiene and sanitation, as well as two minor infractions for failing to clean the floors in its food-handling room and for failing to ensure sanitized equipment surfaces.
A conditional pass is issued when an establishment is found to have one or more significant infractions. Significant infractions are violations under the Food Premises Regulation that pose a potential health hazard.
The first significant infraction was for using the “handwashing station other than for handwashing of employees.”
The second significant infraction was for “fail[ing] to provide equipment for sanitizing utensils as required.”
As per TPH’s system, TPH re-inspects establishments that received a conditional pass within 24–48 hours. If the significant infractions are corrected, the establishment will receive a pass notice.
If the infractions are not corrected upon the first re-inspection, a second re-inspection will be scheduled at a later date. If after that the infractions still have not been corrected, then “a summons to court will be issued and a referral to Toronto’s Municipal Licensing and Standards Division may occur,” according to the Dine Safe website.
On March 22, Chatime passed the re-inspection with one minor infraction left for not maintaining clean floors in the food-handling room.
The Chatime at UTSC is located in the basement of UTSC’s Student Centre. As with all food vendors in the Student Centre, Chatime operates with the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) as the landlord.
There have been numerous food incidents at UTSC in the past, including a large, winged insect found in Asian Gourmet food at the Student Centre. A similar incident happened again with the same establishment a few months later, but this time, the visitor was a larva.
The Varsity has reached out to Chatime and SCSU President Nicole Brayiannis for comment.
