Bill 190 Compliance for Restaurants — 2026 Guide

Restaurants face unique compliance challenges that other industries don't: High foot traffic and turnover. Your washrooms serve both staff and customers throughout the day. During lunch and dinner rushes, washrooms can go from clean to problematic in under an hour. The regulation doesn't care about your rush — it requires consistent documentation. Health inspector confusion. Many restaurant owners assume their existing health inspection covers washroom compliance. It doesn't. Public health inspectors check food safety under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. Washroom cleanliness under OHSA s.25.3 is enforced by the Ministry of Labour — a completely separate agency with separate inspectors and separate fines. Staff rotation and shift changes. Restaurants have high staff turnover and rotating shifts. When your closing cleaner forgets to log a washroom clean, there's a gap in your record. Paper logs make this worse because they rely on human memory. Multiple washroom facilities. Many restaurants have separate staff and customer washrooms, plus kitchen hand-washing stations. Each facility needs its own cleaning log. Insurance implications. Slip-and-fall claims in restaurant washrooms are common. Documented cleaning logs demonstrate due diligence and can significantly strengthen your position in a liability claim.