Formative evaluation of an Inspection Certificate Program (ICP) pilot in Toronto

The inspection certificate program consists of food establishments voluntar ily posting a certificate to inform patrons that inspection reports can be accessed from operators or the. public health department. A three-month pil ot program was evaluated for program improvement purposes. Only 65% of the selected operators were willing to participate, suggests a challenge to ful ly implementing the program. Thirty-nine randomly selected restaurant opera tors participated. Most operators posted the certificate at the front entra nce, and patrons indicated that; reports were clear. Operators were support ive reprogram. Some operators reported the program was good for business an d offered suggestions to improve it. A total of 583 requests for reports we re made which suggests that the program empowered patrons to request report s, mostly from operators. Most patron evaluation forms came from a few oper ators that had no deficiencies, which limits generalizability.