Inspection Services
Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development (ARD) health officers play an important role in ensuring the safety of all food that is processed and distributed from provincially registered facilities within Manitoba.
Health officers inspect facilities to determine if practices required by provincial legislation are being followed with respect to general food handling, storage temperature, sanitation, employee hygiene, equipment maintenance and environmental controls. They also assess formulations and processing methods to ensure that the food produced will be safe, conduct building assessments for new facilities and respond to public complaints.
A health officer will issue a permit to a facility once an inspection shows that acceptable practices are being followed. The facility must continue to meet these requirements to maintain their permit.
If you have a food safety concern please e-mail foodsafety@gov.mb.ca.
Risk-Based Inspection
Facilities are categorized according to the type of product manufactured and a risk assessment is conducted to determine the routine inspection frequency. The picture below shows what is considered when determining risk.
Routine Inspection Frequencies
Routine inspections are unannounced and are conducted at a pre-determined frequency as described in the table below. Follow-up inspections or re-inspections are conducted when violations are found by a health officer. The follow-up date is determined based on the severity of the violation.
| Facility Type | Risk Rating | Inspection Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Minimal food processing (ex: simple processes with few ingredients) Food distribution (ex: warehouses) |
high | every six months |
| medium | once per year | |
| low | once per two years | |
| Food and beverage processors | high | three times per year |
| medium | every six months | |
| low | once per year |
Inspection Statistics
Total number of inspections (routine, re-inspections, and responses to complaints)
| January 1 to March 31, 2021 | 217 |
| October 1 to December 31, 2020 | 198 |
| July 1 to September 30, 2020 | 284 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2020 | 272 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2020 | 224 |
| October 1 to December 31, 2019 | 209 |
| July 1 to September 30, 2019 | 187 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2019 | 223 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2019 | 185 |
| October 1 to December 31, 2018 | 287 |
| July 1 to September 30, 2018 | 207 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2018 | 266 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2018 | 179 |
| October 1 to December 31, 2017 | 176 |
| July 1 to September 30, 2017 | 163 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2017 | 229 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2017 | 185 |
| October 1 to December 31, 2016 | 195 |
| July 1 to September 30, 2016 | 171 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2016 | 189 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2016 | 168 |
| October 1 to December 31, 2015 | 140 |
| July 1 to September 30, 2015 | 183 |
| April 1 to June 30, 2015 | 214 |
| January 1 to March 31, 2015 | 166 |
The top five non-compliances were (January 1 to March 31, 2021):
- Non-food contact surfaces are not clean and may pose a food safety hazard.
- Foods, ingredients and packaging materials are not properly stored and protected.
- Ventilation and the condition of coolers and freezers is not sufficient to prevent excessive heat, steam, condensation, ice, vapours, odours, smokes or fumes.
- Interior rooms, coolers/freezers (floors, walls, and ceilings), structures and fittings are not maintained for the operations taking place within.
- Effective preventative pest control measures are not taken in both the interior or exterior of the establishment.
Escalating Enforcement
In the case where there are serious or repeat violations a health officer may write a warning letter, issue a ticket, seize and destroy product and/or close a facility. A facility is often referred to a food safety specialist who can help determine an acceptable way to address the issue.
Enforcement activity (January 1 to March 31, 2021):
| warning letters | 1 |
| verbal warnings | 1 |
| tickets issued | 1 |
| suspensions | 1 |
| product seized or destroyed | 0 |
| closure | 0 |
