17/09/2015 | 11:40 AM

Understanding TPH’s GastroBusters pilot program

TORONTO — When Toronto Public Health (TPH) announced the launch of GastoBusters in July, the online food poisoning reporting system created concern about false claims among Toronto restaurateurs.   

ORN asked Dr. Michael Finkelstein, associate medical officer of health, how the pilot program works.

The website collects information on demographics, signs and symptoms and asks what the user has eaten in the last three days.  

If contact information is provided, TPH follows up with the complainant about their food history to identify potential sources of illness.

“I think common understanding in the public is that if you eat something and then get sick afterwards, that it must have been what you just ate that made you sick,” said Finkelstein. “That’s not necessarily true because of the variable incubation periods for things that might make you sick.”

If the person did eat something suspicious or likely to cause illness, samples are requested. 

If contact information is not provided, TPH uses the information provided in the GastroBusters report.

“That information is sent to our Healthy Environments program, the food safety people, and they are going to look at [whether] there are enough details provided in the complaint to allow us to conduct an investigation,” Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein noted TPH has always received anonymous complaints though its DineSafe website and by phone.

Last year, TPH received about 6,900 complaints, 632 were deemed illnesses and, of those, 110 were anonymous.

The idea behind GastroBusters, is to create a “safe and comfortable” electronic means for Toronto residents to report potential food poisoning in a structured way, said Finkelstein.

While DineSafe provides an online free text field, GastroBusters prompts users to provide more relevant details.

“We were hoping that by giving people specific questions to answer, that it would allow us to collect the information in a more robust fashion,” Finkelstein said. “When you’re on the DineSafe website there is a tendency to link your illness with some restaurant ... the GastroBusters website allows us to look at that more complete history of food exposure.”

As of Aug.16, GastroBusters received 181 reports and 66 had been referred for investigation.