Robert Benzie
Queen's Park Bureau
Hot dog! Ontarians are getting a bigger menu of street eats beyond street meat.
While officials emphasize sausages and wieners are here to stay, sidewalk gourmands could soon be tucking into salads, fruit, pizzas, samosas, soups and more as the provincial government updates food regulations, sources say.
Health Minister George Smitherman will make the announcement today at the Taste of Lawrence food festival in Scarborough, the Star has learned. The changes will take effect later this summer.
They come more than a year after Toronto city councillor and health board chair John Filion (Ward 23, Willowdale) began a push for more varied foods to match the city's ethnic diversity, prompting Smitherman's office to look into ways of making it happen.
"We think this will bring Ontario into the same realm of cities like New York," said a source familiar with the changes.
"We have certainly been made aware of what other jurisdictions have been able to support without concern. Quite often, what we've been hearing, 'why not here?' – that's a fair comment."
The move was also fuelled by concerns that street meat – with high fat and sodium levels – isn't the healthiest choice people can make, one of several issues the Toronto Star chronicled in the past year in looking at how Toronto street eats paled in comparison with major cities around the world.
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