There weren’t many violations Thursday at a Miami-Dade Fresco Y Mas, but supermarkets don’t need many handling, thawing and storage of food violations to fail inspection.
And Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors Wenndy Ayerdis and Luis Lopez noted this, starting the inspection report of 15050 Sunset Drive with: “The person in charge does not ensure active managerial control, as evidenced by violations noted on the inspection report: receiving temperatures; cold and hot holding temperatures.”
Safe transport or storage for foods kept in cold storage requires they be kept at or under 41 degrees. Food kept in hot holding units need to be at or above 135 degrees. Everything between those temperatures creates the potential for bacterial overpopulation.
But on Thursday, six cases of Lifeway Kefir, described by Lifeway as a “tart and tangy cultured milk,” arrived at the store measuring 46 degrees. This happened, the inspection report said, “with no employee having checked the receiving temperature prior to inspector checking the product.”
The inspectors issued Stop Sale orders on all 192 ounces of Lifeway Kefir.
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In the retail seafood cold unit, where customers grab their fish, one whole salmon, four salmon packs with two fillets each, and four packs of tilapia with three fillets each all “measured out of temperature.” Stop Sale orders were also issued for those products.
At a preparation sink, food inspectors said they saw packaged sausage “thawing at ambient temperature.” The inspectors counted that violation as corrected when the “sausage was cooked in beans.”
Frozen beef-liver packages were also seen thawing at ambient temperature in a sink. The liver was put in the walk-in cooler for proper thawing.
In the meat department, a cardboard box “filled with raw oxtails” was sitting in a small amount of standing water in a sink. The oxtails were “placed under proper refrigeration.”
Imported serrano ham sat open in the deli cold unit with a date mark that started Sept. 25, meaning it needed to be sold or trashed by Oct. 2. This inspection was on Oct. 8. It was thrown out after the inspectors issued another Stop Sale order.
The inspectors also noted that someone in the food service area “washed unclean pots and pans with soap and then dipped them into sanitizer, without rinsing the soapy items.” The correct order is wash, rinse, sanitize.
At the produce warewashing sink, “the drain pipe leaks when water is turned on at the sanitize compartment.”
The inspectors also indicted the management present on Thursday for being “unable to correctly respond to questions related to foodborne illnesses, symptoms, and reporting responsibilities.”