Pusateri's: 'Caught with their pants down,' what comes next?

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Dina Bahgat used to do her weekly grocery shopping at Pusateri's Fine Foods – until Toronto Public Health inspectors closed the company's flagship store over poor sanitation, rodent droppings and signs of cockroach infestation.

The Toronto resident says she never minded paying a little extra for quality food and service at the gourmet grocery store. But the Oct. 20 closure of Pusateri's Avenue Road location has turned her off shopping at her own neighbourhood Pusateri's store in Yorkville.

"Their stuff is expensive and you would expect that their cleaning would be better," Ms. Bahgat says. "I don't think I'm going to Pusateri's for a while now, just until I hear that they're back on track."

Although the store re-opened on Monday after a thorough cleaning and the approval of health inspectors, the upscale gourmet grocer is still faced with the daunting task of winning back customers like Ms. Bahgat.

"They've been caught with their pants down," says Toronto food-service consultant Diane Chiasson, president of Chiasson Consultants, Inc. Still, she believes Pusateri's is well positioned to recover. "Because it's been such a good company in a way, in terms of customer service and products … you tend to forgive them."

The company's vice-president, Ida Pusateri, expressed "regret that the situation has occurred" in a press release issued on the day of the closure, and noted the company was working diligently to fix the problems. And Shawn Rusich of Butter PR, who is handling Pusateri's public relations, says the Avenue location, one of three in Toronto, will hand out tins of locally-produced artisanal chocolates as a "thank you" to customers for their support. The company is planning further customer incentives, although Mr. Rusich had no immediate details.

Ted Matthews, brand coach and founding partner of Toronto's Instinct Brand Equity, says Pusateri's nevertheless faces an uphill battle.

"It's very difficult. With social media and the Internet, these stories never go away," he says.

In instances like these, companies need to be upfront, which isn't how Pusateri's initially appeared to handle its situation, he says.

Pusateri's initially said its Avenue Road store was closed for maintenance, a statement that the company's president Frank Luchetta now acknowledges might have been confusing to the public. In industry parlance, "'maintenance' is pest control; it's a more civilized way to say something like pest control," he says, adding a public-health inspector advised him to use the term "because it's the cleanest terminology."

Mr. Luchetta also says the cockroaches that inspectors found in the store came from a shipment of wicker baskets that were in its storage area for non-food supplies. Moreover, the inspectors found only mouse droppings, not live mice, which means they, too, could have come into the store on a skid or from elsewhere, he says. He emphasizes that food safety was never cited as an issue. "[This has]nothing to do with food at all."

(Chris Eby, a spokesman for the Pusateri family, says Mr. Luchetta may have "misspoken" and meant to say inspectors did not determine that any food was contaminated or unsafe, and that there was never any need to recall products.)

Public-health officials report there was evidence of not only mouse droppings and live roaches, which indicated "heavy infestation," but a lack of regular cleaning, including a buildup of dirt, debris and food waste found underneath equipment and in the corners of Pusateri's kitchen, where its catering and prepared food items are made, and in food-storage areas.

In addition, "the equipment, such as the equipment for cutting meat … appeared [to have]been neglected for longer than a regular cleaning," says Jim Chan, manager of Toronto Public Health's food safety program. "Very often, that kind of lack of regular, detailed cleaning can lead to or escalate any kind of pest infestation."

He adds that even if the odd cockroach were accidentally brought in, it would take around a month for the eggs to hatch and cause an infestation. "You don't just – bang, overnight, [have]hundreds of cockroaches running around."

Previous health inspections have given the Pusateri's store a green "pass," but Mr. Chan says inspectors have made a number of notes over the past year to year-and-a-half of its minor sanitation issues, including records of dirty surfaces, inadequate lighting and a need to wash equipment.

The latest inspection on Oct. 20, which led to the store's closure, was conducted in response to a complaint made by a member of the public.

Mr. Luchetta says the company immediately brought in a professional cleaning service, which, along with staff, spent days cleaning the store from top to bottom. Every item was taken off the shelves, every shelf was wiped down and sanitized, every piece of equipment – from meat slicers, to knives, to grinders – was taken apart and scrubbed.

He emphasizes these measures went beyond what health officials required of the company.

"I don't believe it [the problems cited by Public Health]was as serious as the precautions that were taken to rectify the issue," he says.

But Mr. Chan says inspectors don't expect food facilities to follow health standards to the letter. Especially during busy times, spills or unattended food waste are considered normal conditions of operation, he says. "It takes a lot of evidence to come to a decision of a closure." Of the 16,000 food premises in the city that are inspected by health inspectors, 36 have been shut down so far this year, says Mr. Chan.

He says health inspectors will conduct spot checks of the Avenue Road store within 60 days to ensure standards are maintained. The other Pusateri's stores are not affected.

In the meantime, Mr. Luchetta says the company is adopting a system of documentation for its daily procedures that will require check marks and signatures.

"We want to be completely transparent with our customers," he says.

But for Toronto resident Diana Mancuso, who has occasionally shopped at Pusateri's for around seven years, such measures may be too late.

"Just the thought of them having had that infestation really worries me, on top of really grossing me out," she says. "… If they've lost my trust, they've lost my trust. There's no way that they're going to get it back."