A Loblaws location has been closed by Toronto Public Health after inspectors found a "heavy rodent infestation" at the grocery store.
TPH says the store, located at 650 Dupont St. near Christie St. was investigated after a customer complained seeing a mouse in the store.
Inspectors shut the store down at 10 p.m. Monday night after finding evidence of a rodent infestation inside and outside, plus there was a lack of adequate pest control, TPH said in a statement.
Jim Chan of Toronto Public Health says there is a very low risk of getting sick."However, look for damage on the package," he says. "We ask the customer not to consume (food with damaged packages)."
Chan also advises the public to not eat chicken and other products from the store's take-out counter.
Marilyn Lee, a public health professor at Ryerson University, says the infractions pose a threat if food was tainted with bacteria.
"Any time you have fecal matter, potentially you have salmonella there," she tells CP24.COM.
"Good sanitary practices suggest you shouldn't have any evidence of rodents around foods."
Lee, who worked as a public health inspector in Guelph for several years before joining Ryerson, says there's also reason to be concerned with infractions regarding improper employee hygiene.
"(Workers) could have been working with raw fish, raw chicken, or with a mop or a broom," she says. "Who knows what they have on their hands."
Photos first posted on Toronto blog website blogTO show a red TPH closed sign on the store's door. Inside, food was thrown in plastic bags and workers scrubbed surfaces clean.
Infractions also include inadequate food temperature control, failure to protect food from contamination, and failure to produce a valid food handler's certificate, which is an infraction of a municipal bylaw.
The store will be re-inspected and allowed to open if it passes.
The store's previous inspection record shows a history of passes going back to April 27, 2007.
