Posted: July 7th, 2009 - 4:34am by Katie Filion

I’ve never been to Saskatchewan, but for some reason whenever I picture the prairie people I picture Dwight Schrute’s beet-lovin’ cousin Mose (pictured right) from The Office. Perhaps the fear on the Saskatchewanonian’s shirts has caused the recent decrease in restaurant inspection website numbers.

The Leader-Post reports that although more than half a million visits have been made to the inspection disclosure website, numbers are declining.

Lisa Piller, food safety consultant with the Ministry of Health explained,

"The initial interest in the website resulted in very high volumes of traffic…”, but traffic to the website has “slowed down” since its high-profile launch two months ago.

The Region of Waterloo in Ontario had a similar problem. I suggested a form of inspection disclosure at the premise, like Scores on Doors in the U.K. or letter grades in L.A. County. Disclosure at the premise may help to keep the food safety dialogue going among consumers and operators, while website popularity is likely to fade.

Or food handlers could wear fear shirts – that would start some chatter.