Sucks

  • Guelph is no Oxford - but the food hygiene sucks at both

    Posted: May 26th, 2009 - 2:45pm by Doug Powell

    When I began university, staying in an on-campus residence, the occupants had to sign up to a meal plan. That was 1981, and you could buy five pitchers of beer on a $20 meal card in the local dining hall at the University of Guelph.

    The food was gross, but we always ate in our rooms, saving the meal cards for beer.

    And maybe we were on to something. Because 18 years later, the uppity Oxford University has been outted as having horrible food prep standards.

    At New College a mouse was found eating food from a wheelie bin and dirty work tops were identified.

    Rats were discovered scurrying around the rear yard outside kitchens at Mansfield and Pembroke Colleges.

    Council workers were appalled by the dilapidated state of kitchens at many of the old buildings and said they were badly in need of a re-fit.

    At Worcester College part of the ceiling collapsed in the area where plates are washed but staff continued to carry on working around it.

    And in the typical leadership fashion of most higher institutes of learning,

    A spokesman for Oxford University said it was a matter for individual colleges and they would not be commenting.

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    Restaurant Inspection  |  1 Comment
    Belushi, Cafeterias, oxford, Retaurants, Sucks
  • Canada's surveillance system still sucks

    Posted: June 12th, 2008 - 1:35pm by Doug Powell

    During the 728 or so interviews I've done on tomatoes and Salmonella in the past week, a radio reporter in Calgary asked me, as did several other Canadian outlets,

    "What is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency doing?"

    "Nothing."

    CFIA can speak for itself.

    When asked if Canadians were safe from this outbreak, I said, maybe, depends on first figuring out where the contaminated tomatoes were grown, then depends on what was coming into Canada at that point in time.

    That uncertainty would help explain why Canadian fast-food outlets pulled fresh tomatoes from their offerings -- at least until the source could be verified.

    But, I added, even if someone did get sick, it would be difficult to notice because Canadian health surveillance sucks.

    Apparently the Canadian Medical Association agrees, calling the system,

    "a national embarrassment."

    Dr. Kumanan Wilson writes in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that the Auditor General of Canada has warned 3 times, most recently in May, 2008, that Canada's failure to develop surveillance systems puts Canadians at risk.

    In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Amir Attaran  of the University of Ottawa, writing on behalf of CMAJ's editorial team, calls upon the federal government to "legislate a way past the jurisdictional schisms" and make information regarding health epidemics readily available. Currently, "12 of 13 provinces are under no obligation to share information with the federal government or the rest of Canada during an outbreak," writes Dr. Attaran. "We at CMAJ believe this is a national embarrassment."
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    Food Safety Policy  |  0 Comments
    Canada, Sucks, Surveillance