Handwashing that wasn’t washing, cooling equipment that didn’t cool and dirty equipment that wasn’t cleaned for a day led to inspection issues at a North Miami-Dade supermarket.
The violations, Stop Sale Orders on food, and Stop Use Orders on equipment stretched Friday’s inspection report of the Price Choice Supermarket at 2712 NW 95th St. to 11 pages.
Here’s are some of the problems Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors Pedro Llanos and Kaitlyn Loeb found:
Price Choice Supermarket, 2712 NW 95th St., North Miami-Dade DAVID J. NEAL dneal@miamiherald.com
“Numerous small, flying insects were observed around the produce juicer” in the backroom.
In the food services area, “food employees did not wash their hands before donning gloves to work with open food and espresso items.”
One food service area worker washed hands before putting on gloves, but did so “with cold water and without soap.”
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In that same area, “food containers, hotel pans and utensils weren’t sanitized after washing.”
Some things in the food service area weren’t washed. Two deli slicers that hadn’t been used since the previous day were “found with soil and food debris on blades and interior shields.” Also, “a ladle and spoon stored inside a container on the prep table near the steam table was found with old food debris.” A can opener blade was “found with old food residue.”
In the food service area, reach-in coolers with the job of storing food at or under 41 degrees contained cut lettuce, cut tomato, cheese spread, gallons of milk, serrano ham, gouda, mortadella, muenster, queso blanco, mozzarella, provolone, American cheese, potato salad, spaghetti salad, sweet beans and 168 packs of salted fish measured from 47 to 53 degrees.
A fusillade of Stop Sales sent all of the above to the garbage.
All that “temperature abuse,” as the inspectors call it, likely means there’s an equipment issue. The inspectors put Stop Use Orders on the Hillphoenix deli display cooler and the seafood display cooler that had all that salted fish.
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Also in the food service area sat “packaged raw meat and a bucket of fish thawing inside the wash basin of the three-compartment sink.”
Room temperature thawing shouldn’t occur, much less in the wash sink of the triple sink — especially since someone washed dishes in the rinse sink and a third person washed and rinsed a wiping cloth.
The food service area’s food employees, the inspectors noted, “do not wear effective hair restraints while working with open food items.”
In the kitchen, “two containers of breading used with raw fish were stored on a shelf over the oven since (the previous day) without being sifted.” Another Stop Sale.
The meat area cutting boards had “deep grooves/cuts and can no longer be effectively cleaned and sanitized.”
In the backroom, “clamshells containing tamarind were stored inside a handwash sink next to the large ice machine.”
Speaking of that large ice machine, it had “black, mold-life substance on the interior walls and ledges.” The smaller ice machine near the receiving door had “a heavy accumulation of black, mold-like substance on the interior ice chute.”
The outdoor dumpster near that receiving door was “not covered with a lid at the time of the visit” and still wasn’t Wednesday afternoon. The receiving door also was wide open.
The dumpster remained open, as it was during an inspection. Also open with nothing obstructing any vermin that might want to enter — the delivery dock. DAVID J. NEAL dneal@miamiherald.com
Miami Herald
Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.