Food Safety Market Blog

Over the last year, seafood fraud has become a major issue in Canada. Studies have shown that the majority of the seafood consumed by Canadians is mislabeled, with consumers buying and eating a completely different product than what’s advertised on the label.

Dog-friendly restaurants have quickly become all the rage, allowing patrons to bring their four-legged friends with them for a bite to eat.

 

The trend may be welcomed by pet-owners, but it's not as clear-cut for food handlers who have to consider any food safety risks pets may pose and may need to brush up with a safe food handling course to ensure they're aware of all the regulations and rules around animals in a foodservice setting.

 

In 2018, it was reported that Canada was one of the world’s leading food wasters, with 396 kilograms of food being wasted or lost every year. In comparison, two of Canada’s largest neighbours, the United States and Mexico, lose up to 415 kilograms and 249 kilograms respectively. The vast majority of this waste is produced by consumers, and a number of factors lead to high waste including large portions, buffets, imperfect produce, and non-standardized expiry dates.

It’s becoming more common for municipalities to make health inspection results widely available to the public, detailing when restaurants have been inspected, how many infractions were found, what those infractions were, and what action the health inspector has taken.

If a health inspector finds problems with a foodservice business, one of the standard recommendations is that food safety courses be taken by management and employees. There are several online options to choose from and evaluating them can be daunting for a time-starved manager.

A   large rodent inside a Vancouver 7-Eleven beverage cooler made the news in July  after being photographed and filmed by customers. This comes just four months after a March incident where a   rat was found in a customer’s bread bowl at a Vancouver chowder restaurant. These recent incidents have reinforced the importance of food service businesses knowing how to prevent and control rodents, and how they affect food safety in these establishments.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is very quickly gaining traction in a wide variety of industries, transforming the working world by streamlining processes, informing decision making, and allowing employees to be more efficient than ever before. Healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and education are just a few of the industries currently being revolutionized by AI, with the technology also making a significant impact on many aspects of food safety and the food service sector.

One of the best ways to spend a beautiful summer day is to take a stroll through your local farmers market, where vendors from around the community offer delicious treats, farm-fresh produce, and genuine handmade items that can’t be rivalled by big box stores. If you’re planning to showcase some of your wares at a local farmers market this summer season, it’s important that you recognize the food safety risks associated with farmers markets, and what you can do to ensure the safest possible experience for your customers.

Canadians are getting more serious about food safety. Many municipalities now make it possible for the public to view the results of food safety inspections online at any time, putting crucial information into the hands of thousands of potential customers around the country. Instead of worrying about not passing your next food safety inspection, you can instead use food safety training to ensure that your food service establishment never has to worry about inspection results again. Additionally a food safety incident can mean multiple negative reviews on various platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Food safety training is becoming more and more important to foodservice businesses from a marketing perspective, so it’s important that you and your staff know how to use it to gain a competitive edge.