Cora Pizza in Toronto shut down due to rat infestation

Posted: December 25th, 2009 - 8:54pm by Doug Powell

Cora Pizza, (the One Stop Pizza Shop), apparently a favorite of University of Toronto students, was shut down Dec. 21/09 by Toronto Public Health due to a rodent infestation and to prevent gross unsanitary conditions.

Among the findings were a bucket that was used for pizza sauce showing obvious "signs of contamination with dirt and mold” and "dead rats and rat droppings in the kitchen."

blogTO reported that previous inspections in March and June of this year found a long list of infractions, including failure to:

* ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated;

* use proper procedure(s) to ensure food safety;

* provide hand washing supplies; and,

* provide adequate pest control.

The Toronto Star reported that  this week's discovery of rodents at a Spadina Ave. pizza shop and a bakery outlet at a subway station has put the spotlight on Toronto's restaurant inspection program.

The pass-fail card system, in which a red card closes the eatery until problems are corrected, was set back by last summer's 39-day civic workers' strike and the fight against the H1N1 flu pandemic.

Inspectors have since been working hard to catch up.

Nearly every week in Toronto, an establishment is closed down temporarily for food safety infractions. There were 41 closures this year and 46 in 2008.

Those statistics indicate the city, which has some 16,000 restaurants, food stores and bakeries, is staying on top of the serious cases, said associate medical officer of health Dr. Howard Shapiro, who notes they inspect "probably a few hundred places a day."

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Anonymous says:

I am aware that one of the reasons that Cora Pizza was shut down last december 2009 was because they pick used paper plates and bags out of the garbage. After the paper plates and bags were cleaned up then the cleanest of the dirtiest plates went back into the front of the store to be given out when people but by the slice. The dirtiest of the pizza plates went into the back of the store. The dirtiest of the pizza plates were being put into the bottom of the pizza boxes for deliveries. After all, no one would notice anyway. Right? To this day Cora Pizza is still picking used plates and bags out of the garbage and giving them back to their customers. After all, Cora Pizza has to save money you know. If you think I am lieing then try this, just walk into the store at Cora pizza. Walk to the end of the display case where they have their veggie pizza on the top shelf, then cheese, then more than likely 3 day old Neapolitana pizza. There is a door way immediately to your left. You will see one of the ovens up front which creates a narrow passage way into the back of the kitchen. When you walk down this passage way the pizza making station is to the right of you. There is a wall on the left side that has a little cubby hole in it. Just pass that there is a counter on the left side with a double stack oven right behind you. There will be large pizza boxes to the left side of the counter, a tin that has cookies in it and the paper plates which have been taken out of the garbage are sitting right on top of that cookie tin. To this day that is still happening. What is Cora Pizza trying to do? Do they actually want to contaminate someone so badly that they could get sick and die. Hey they do not care. They got your money from you and that is all that matters.

Posted on June 1st, 2010 - 10:38pm

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