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Jim Chan, Toronto food safety head who ushered in DineSafe, retiring
After 36 years on the job, this city’s most recognizable face of food safety is leaving his post in October.
Jim Chan displays a tray of ungraded eggs seized from a Toronto restaurant.
He told us it was safe to dine in Chinatown’s eateries during SARS, and we followed his advice.
When he helped usher in DineSafe more than 10 years ago, we heaved a collective sigh of relief.
And, every time this city’s been hit by a culinary crisis — 2010’s Listeria outbreak, Pusateri’s 2011 vermin situation, this summer’s cronut-borne illness at the CNE — he’s been there to guide us through – calmly and with a bit of humour.
What will Torontonians do without Jim Chan?
After 36 years on the job, this city’s most recognizable face of food safety is leaving his post in October.
“We’ll miss him terribly,” Toronto Public Health spokesperson Kris Scheuer says.
“With food safety you need someone you can trust; who can explain information; that’s reliable and honest and can tell you the truth. He has that trust level with people.”
Chan – his official title is Manager of Healthy Environments – is sweet and mustachioed and began his career at TPH at 19 years old after studying Microbiology at the University of Guelph. He’s since become the go-to spokesperson when food crisis or controversy hits.
It’s probably only a coincidence that he’s leaving this year — the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors.
“After 36 years in public health . . . started in Kent Chatham Health Unit in 1977 as a health inspector in training, and joined TPH in September, 1977 . . . it’s been a rich and challenging career and I enjoyed every part of it,” he tells the Star.
“I finally decided to take my retirement on Oct. 31, 2013.”
Chan, a senior food inspector, has spent the better part of four decades getting to the bottom of food-borne illnesses in this city, at restaurants, in hot dog carts, grocery stores. He’s put his extensive expertise to use on joint investigations with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and helped educate restaurant owners, staff and many more about proper hygiene and food safety. We owe him thanks for helping make sure recalled food items don’t end up on the shelves in our grocery stores.
It’s Chan we might think about when we glimpse that Green Pass on restaurant windows.
It’s probably his depth of experience — been there, seen that, know what to say about it — that’s made him successful at his job, Scheuer says.
Also, his push for transparency about food safety — especially when a series of Toronto Star articles pushed for it too.
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