Unchecked pest infestations are the most common reason for a Section 13 order, according to Peel Director Environmental Health Paul Callanan, the person in charge of the region’s health inspectors.

Most restaurant closure reports last year were rife with skin-crawling accounts of kitchens overrun by roaches.

Details of the conditions in some of those restaurants would turn the stomachs of unsuspecting customers.

Not far from where Ostrowski encountered a rampant roach infestation at the Indian Sweet Master, a similar scene greeted her last July at another Ray Lawson Boulevard restaurant.

She went to India’s Taste in response to a customer’s complaint about a “slimy” ras malai dish.

Ostrowski’s report noted that at the time of inspection the dish appeared fine, but she found several dishes kept at unsafe temperatures, plant debris in uncovered food, flies circling the buffet bar as well as a thriving cockroach population.

She noticed roaches, some dead and others showing signs of life, mired in glue traps stuck to the wall above the food preparation table.

“I observed two cockroaches running up the leg of a storage unit with bagged potatoes and onions,” she wrote in her report.

The food safety violations and pest control issue were enough for Ostrowski to close the restaurant while customers were still dining.

“I asked the owner to prevent new customers from coming in,” she noted.

Customers already at tables were left to finish their meals, according to health department inspection reports obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

It was a customer complaint about seeing a cockroach on the store counter and in food at the Bombay Chaat that brought Inspector Teddy Alivio to the Mississauga restaurant last December.

He found a roach problem considered serious enough to immediately close the Shepard Avenue takeout in the Newin Centre Mall food court.

The insects, which health officials consider mechanisms for transporting disease, were spotted scurrying across the floor, kitchen counter, a chopping board and utensils as well as inside a pot and floating in a bowl of soaking beans.

“At least four adult cockroaches and 50 nymph cockroaches observed on the wooden counter table located at the back area of the kitchen where utensils and other food containers are stored,” Alivio recorded in his report.

A complaint about cockroaches and poor food handling sent Inspector Alan Clavo to the Tandoori Flame on Dixie Road in Brampton last October.

According to the closure report, the premises were in a state of general disrepair and a cockroach infestation posed a “critical risk” to the health of customers in the poplar restaurant.

Roaches “at all life cycles” were found in the kitchen and dining area.

“Found two live nymphs and an egg capsule in the cabinet below the salad bar,” Clavo’s report noted.

It was a four-legged pest that caught the eye of Inspector Dennis Persaud during a routine visit to Mississauga’s Vienna Bakery last November.

He saw mouse droppings throughout the Torbram Road premises, including the food preparation and storage areas.

“A dead mouse seen in an empty plastic pail located in the sprinkler/water meter room. A live mouse seen running on the floor in one of the electrical room,” confirmed a rodent problem and resulted in a closure order.

A food safety report also noted operators of the bake shop were storing vehicle tires and rims, brake pads, lumber, old cabinets and other material on the premises that provided “harbourages” for rodents and other pests.

Disease-carrying cockroaches and rodents are the most common impetus for restaurant closures in Peel.

However, failing to keep foods either cold or hot enough to inhibit disease-causing bacteria growth or failing to ensure premises have hot running water to carry out proper hand washing and sanitation can be just as critical health hazards, explained Callanan.

The businesses closed last year all reopened within days, after taking steps to address the issues identified by inspectors and passing re-inspection.

The public can search for the most recent health inspection at their local eatery online at www.peelregion.ca/health/inspections.