Starting today, July 1st, 2008, Albertans can check the cleanliness of all the province’s restaurants online.

From CBCnews.ca:

Inspection reports that find any violations of the province’s food regulations - appropriate hand washing, food preparation and storage - will be posted on the websites of health regions.

The reports will be listed by restaurant name and will include information about the past five inspections, said John Tuckwell, a spokesman for Alberta Health and Wellness, Thursday.

In 2006, the Calgary Health Region began posting restaurant closures on its website, and Edmonton’s Capital Health Region provided diners with inspection information over the telephone, but July 1 is the deadline for all nine regions to begin publishing the reports.

Under provincial law, restaurant inspections happen before the opening of a new facility and then every four to six months following that - or more often if violations are found.

Here’s another article in the Calgary Herald where it says:

The move to post the reports online comes a year and a half after Alberta auditor general Fred Dunn found health inspectors in many parts of the province weren’t meeting frequency targets.

Dunn also found health regions were failing to prosecute “critical” food safety violations.

So basically, if a restaurant is dirty or has unsanitary practices, they won’t necessarily be closed down - you’ll just have to check the website ;-) It’s a step in the right direction, but it would be nice to have this information mandatorily posted in the restaurant’s window like in Toronto.

Here’s the link for Calgary: www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/health-inspections/

And here’s a list of links for other regions: www.health.alberta.ca/public/restaurant-inspections.html

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