Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit officials say they did not shut down the Knights of Columbus annual chicken dinner on Friday night at WAMBO.
However, they did ask the K of C not to serve a significant portion of the chicken because of health concerns.
Rosemarie Arndt, manager of environmental programs with the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit, said “no decision to discard or ask food not to be served is made lightly.
“That decision to do so would be based on the fact that it is a high probability that eating that food is going to make you sick,” she said.
Arndt said the Health Unit did not shut down the event on Friday.
“We didn’t shut down the Wallaceburg chicken dinner,” she said. “We closed down nobody on Friday night. We go out and do inspections of all of our special events throughout the entire Municipality of Chatham-Kent. We’re out there to ensure that the food they are serving to the public is safe and that the food is healthy and is not going to make anybody sick.”
Arndt said they had concerns at the Friday night dinner in Wallaceburg about temperature control with the chicken.
“We’re looking at all the key things in terms of temperature control, storage and handling, cross contamination and all that stuff,” she said. “We had some issues of maintenance of temperature control at this chicken dinner that night. There was some food that was probably not safe to serve. So we asked them not to serve that portion of food, but we certainly didn’t shut down the event itself.”
Arndt said she does not know the exact number of food that was thrown out.
“I’m sure the event organizers could probably tell you, but I think it was probably a significant portion,” she said. “The understanding that I have right now is that the event didn’t run, so it probably impacted quite a bit. That decision was theirs, not ours.”
Arndt said the Health Unit’s goal “is not to close or shut down or stop the special events from happening at all.
“We work very hard to ensure they have every opportunity to comply with whatever we require. Because it is a special event, it is a one off. It is happening at that moment in time and they don’t have days or weeks to meet our requirements. We work with every vendor and if there is something that needs to be fixed, we are very flexible in terms of making sure it gets done within a reasonable amount of time at the event itself. There is a lot of time spent with helping people comply with what we are looking for,” Arndt said.
No changes to the regulations have been made recently, Arndt said.
“The process is the same as it has always been for years,” she said.
Every single special event and vendor in Chatham-Kent is inspected across the community.
“We do all of them,” Arndt said. “Your special event organizers apply to the Municipality for the event to run. They get a list of their vendors and it is the event organizers responsibility to gather up this information and submit it with their application. We receive the applications and work with the Municipality in terms of licensing the event.
She added: “We contact and speak to every food vendor out there. So there are some food vendors, depending on timing, that we may not make it to the inspection but somebody from that food event has been spoken to by a public health inspector. There has been contact made either verbally or on site in every single case. We’ll go out the day of the event the day that it happens and do our inspections. Sometimes you may see us both days, it all depends on when things are running, what parts of the event are running. We do our best to get out to every single one.”
Arndt said either certified public health inspectors or student public health inspectors are the individuals conducting the inspections.
“Often it is a student going out and doing that inspection,” she said. “When the student encounters issues, she is in direct contact and communication with a certified public health inspector to make decisions.”
Arndt added: “Student public health inspectors are in a school program designed to become public health inspectors. There is only one school in Ontario where you can do that at, and those are the only students that we hire. They’ve already had schooling to become PHI’s. It’s not just any kid off the street.”
Bill Wolsing, chair of WAMBO, said it seemed like the Health Unit “advanced” their inspections this year.
“The K of C have been with WAMBO for over 25 years now,” he said. “You would think they would have known ahead of time if they were looking for something. We’ve never had an issue with the K of C chicken dinner, but with that being said they were being a little more stringent with other vendors, they weren’t just using that aspect with one group.”
Wolsing said he hopes the K of C come back next year to hold the annual chicken dinner.
“I hope they come back next year,” he said. “They help us, we have a good working relationship with them. They’re there at the meetings and they take their community service very seriously. They are a great bunch of people that help us and the community.”
Barry McFadden, a member of the Wallaceburg K o C, spoke with us and had no comment.
McFadden added the K of C are planning on meeting this evening.
We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.
Sounds like the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit is feeling the heat.
I believe Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit officials should work and assist with food vendors at special events and have available staff to assist with the entire process from the beginning from handling, cooking and serving, rather then disrupting service or quantity expected to be served as done during WAMBO with K of C Annual Chicken Dinner. By simply ruling on the final product just prior to serving is an unfair process to all the good charitable organizations and what they and their volunteers try to achieve. These people do this for the love of their community and Chatham-Kent Health Unit should pitch in their expectations with their help through the entire process from beginning to end to ensure this would not happen again.
And who is going to pay for all these staff to be on duty at public events, holding the hands of these organisations? Charities are obliged to designate an event manager who is food safe certified. He or she is the person who carries the responsibility in this situation, not the Health Dept staff who have to prevent possible “Walkertons”