Restaurant inspection frequency: The RestoFreq Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Foodborne illness is an important contributor to morbidity and health system costs in Canada. Using number of critical hazards as a proxy for food safety, we sought to better understand how to improve food safety in restaurants. We compared the current standard of annual inspections to twice-yearly inspections among restaurants "at risk" for food safety infractions. These were restaurants that had three or more elevated-risk inspection ratings in the preceding 36 months. METHODS:We conducted a two-arm randomized controlled trial between November 2012 and October 2014. The intervention was twice-yearly routine restaurant inspection compared to standard once-yearly routine inspection. Included were all restaurants within Saskatoon Health Region that were assessed as "at risk", with 73 restaurants in the intervention arm and 78 in the control arm. Independent sample t-tests were conducted between groups to compare: i) average number of critical hazards per inspection; and ii) proportion of inspections resulting in a rating indicating an elevated hazard. RESULTS:Over time we noted statistically significant improvements across both study arms, in number of both critical food safety hazards (decreased by 61%) and elevated-risk inspection ratings (decreased by 45%) (p < 0.0001). We observed no significant differences between the two groups preor post-intervention. CONCLUSION:Results suggest increasing the number of annual routine inspections in high-risk restaurants was not associated with a significant difference in measures of compliance with food safety regulations. Findings of this study do not provide evidence supporting increased frequency of restaurant inspection from annually to twice annually. KEY WORDS: Food safety; restaurants; food inspectionLa traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.

Food premises inspection violations and inspection frequency during COVID-19 in Vancouver Island Health Authority

“…Two studies found no significant difference in the number of violations and increased inspection frequency. This was noted to be consistent with literature in that increased inspection frequency was not associated with decreased violations (Newbold et al, n.d.;Medu et al, 2016). Further, the study by Newbold et al, also…”

“…For this literature review, a combination of peerreviewed journal articles and publications were used, as well as grey literature from various sources such as BCIT Environmental Health Journal (Besharah, 2015;Thandi, 2020;Tung, 2018). Of the four articles chosen for this literature review, two explore restaurant inspection frequency and effects on food safety compliance and number of critical hazards per inspection (Newbold et al, n.d.;Medu et al, 2016).…”

“…The same study also utilized two surveys directed to public health inspectors and focus groups sessions to gain qualitative data around impacts of increased inspection frequency on various factors (Newbold et al, n.d.). The second study utilized a two-arm randomized, two-year controlled trial with at-risk restaurants, in which half the group received twice-yearly inspections and the control receiving the usual once-yearly inspection frequency, and critical hazards and elevated-risk ratings were observed (Medu et al, 2016). A meta-analysis was also used, which assessed impacts of food handler training and education interventions on food handler behaviours and attitudes, and inspection scores (Young et al, 2019).…”

“…Several articles noted the importance of education during routine inspection. Routine premises inspections act not just as a tool for compliance, but also allows the inspectors to identify issues in food safety practises, observe critical and non-critical hazards, and create opportunities for ongoing education (Newbold et al, n.d.;Medu et al, 2016). In a meta-analysis reported by Young et al (2019), there were mixed results when assessing the effects of education interventions on food handler knowledge, behaviour and food premises inspection scores.…”

Factors affecting effectiveness of food control inspections in food production establishments in Finland

“…Leinwand et al 8 found that an increase in inspection frequency decreased violations in nonchain restaurants, but not in chain restaurants. On the other hand, some studies have not found an association between inspection frequency and inspection results 9 , 10 . All of these studies have focused on restaurant inspections.…”