The Evergreen Brick Works Farmers' Market, which runs Saturday mornings, is subject to the same health and safety regulations as a permanent grocery store.
David Cooper/Toronto Star
Jennifer Pagliaro
Staff Reporter
Food safety experts say there’s no clear winner in food safety between farmers’ markets and grocery stores, with both types of operations subject to rigorous health and safety inspections.
Comments made Feb. 7 by Loblaws’ chief Galen Weston about the safety of farmers’ markets may have caused an unintended stir in the industry, but it’s raised some important questions about how food is monitored once it gets to shelves and stalls.
“Farmers’ markets are great . . .” Weston began during a speech to a crowd of 600 at the Canadian Food Summit in Toronto. “One day they’re going to kill some people though.”
“I’m just saying that to be dramatic though,” he quickly added.
But Jim Chan, manager of food safety for Toronto Public Health, said food safety comes down to who’s running the show, not the type of operation they run.
“I won’t say that the risk level in all farmers’ markets is higher than other food premises. You cannot say that,” Chan said. “It’s all depending on the person who is operating that particular site.”
Municipal health inspectors are in charge of inspecting all food premises, including grocery stores and markets.
Permanent operations like grocery stores and restaurants are subject to provincial food premises regulations under the Health Protection and Promotion Act.
In 2006, the province announced that farmers’ markets that had 50 per cent of its vendors farmers selling their own products would be exempt from that set of regulations, along with special events like the Taste of the Danforth, because of their temporary nature.
Market organizers are still required to inform municipal health units of their opening, who then inspect to ensure food safety standards are being met by each vendor.
“We would apply all food safety requirements as we usually enforce during inspection, except that we would look at them as not a fixed type of establishment,” Chan said.
The difference is that market vendors are not required to have things like plumbing or mechanical refrigeration that permanent operations would have, but proper food handling like handwashing stations and temperature control are still required.
Grocery stores undergo a minimum of three mandatory inspections a year, while farmers’ markets are typically inspected at the start of each season and at the midway point, plus any follow-up visits to ensure compliance, Chan said.
Bert Andrews, of Andrews’ Scenic Acres farm in Milton, said it’s wrong to assume products that reaches the grocery store shelves are any different then the ones on sale at farmers’ markets.
“We supply some grocery stores and 10 farmers’ markets,” Andrews wrote in an email. “It is an identical product.”
Chan stressed big grocery store chains can’t hide behind their brand banner, as each individual store is scrutinized for health and safety compliance.
“We have actually shut down large supermarkets because of a health hazard,” Chan said.
Organizers provide Toronto Public Health with a list of vendors and their products before each season. Sometimes they request public health employees conduct information sessions with their vendors.
“Lots of the vendors or the organizers are trying to bring the standard up as high as possible,” Chan said
Anne Freeman, co-ordinator of Dufferin Grove Farmers’ Market, said vendors are highly motivated to ensure food safety because they meet face to face with their clientele and rely financially on keeping their competitive spots at markets.
“It’s their livelihood,” Freeman said. “So they’re more aware than anybody that if they aren’t careful and they did do something wrong, then that would have very serious consequences.”
