Category Archives: Restaurant Inspection

Fancy food ain’t safe food – Maine seafood edition

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A Hancock seafood processor has been shut down due to food safety violations dating as far back as 2004, according to documents filed last week in U.S. District Court.

Sullivan Harbor FarmMill Stream Corp., which does business as Sullivan Harbor Farm, and its owner, Ira Frantzman, became the subject of a consent decree of permanent injunction after inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found serious violations at the company’s processing facility, where its smoked fish products were made.

The company’s products include refrigerated, vacuum-packed cold and hot smoked salmon, charr, mussels and scallops sold mostly to wholesale customers in Boston and Washington, D.C., but also at its retail store and at the Ironbound Restaurant and Inn in Hancock.

The complaint alleges that the company violated federal food safety law by selling fish products “that have been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or may have been rendered injurious to health.”

According to the complaint, the FDA has been inspecting the facility since 2004 and has cited repeated violations of food safety law and regulations.

Fish balls: Street food – Hong Kong edition

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Chaos broke out overnight in the heart of a busy Hong Kong shopping district during a Lunar New Year celebration as police tried to suppress a protest against authorities’ clampdown on unlicensed street vendors.

Curry Fish BallsDuring the protest, a traffic cop fired three shots to warn off protesters, but the protests only grew more fierce, with many demonstrators hurling bricks and glass bottles at police. Amid the confusion, more than 90 police officers were injured and 54 people ages 15 to 70 were arrested, according to police. Four journalists were also injured, according to local media.

The protests started around midnight, when food hygiene officials from the semiautonomous Chinese territory began to close in on dozens of street food vendors at a major intersection in the bustling Mong Kok district. When the vendors resisted by pushing their carts to block the roadways, police were called in.

The plight of the hawkers, many of whom sell fish balls and other traditional Hong Kong snacks, has emerged as a symbol of local identity in conflict with a flood of big business and cultural influence from mainland China.

Some Internet users called the demonstration the “Fish Ball Revolution,” a nod to the massive pro-democracy protest movement of 2014 that paralyzed huge swaths of the city. Mong Kok was one of the movement’s biggest protest sites.

About the same time the food vendors were making their stand, a pro-local-autonomy group known as Hong Kong Indigenous was holding a political rally nearby.

About two dozen people from Hong Kong Indigenous wearing royal blue hoodies, some armed with long wooden sticks and carrying homemade shields, rushed to the scene of the food vendor clampdown and appealed to the public to face off with police. A standoff ensued.

About 2 a.m. Tuesday, without warning, a traffic police officer fired two shots into the sky, but no one gave ground. Word began circulating that the food hygiene officials had roughed up some vendors.

Several hundred protesters soon amassed; some tossed water bottles and bricks at police. A pile of cardboard boxes was set ablaze.

UK Chinese restaurant fined £5,000 for filthy conditions

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The owner of a Chinese restaurant in Leeds city centre has been fined for filthy kitchen conditions.

obmLai Hong Cheong, director of OBM on New York Street, pleaded guilty to five food hygiene offences at Leeds Magistrates Court earlier this week.

She was ordered to pay £5,000 after the court heard the restaurant had posed a risk of harm to the public.

Environmental health officers visited the restaurant in June last year and found dirty and broken equipment, including a tin opener caked with food and dirt, potentially contaminating food.

Risk of contamination also came from dirty surfaces, and staff had nowhere to hygienically dry their hands.

I don’t have to close my dirty restaurant I’ll just ignore you: Philadelphia health department finally gets power to shut dirty eateries

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Sam Wood of Philly.com writes that for years, whenever the Philadelphia health department discovered a restaurant with hygiene problems that posed a public threat, it has ordered the business to shut down and clean up.

rockey.meat.feb.16And for years, restaurants have been able to ignore those cease-and-desist orders.

That’s set to change in March.

An agreement signed by the health agency and the Department of Licenses & Inspections will give health inspectors the power to shut down problem eateries, said Palak Raval-Nelson, director of Environmental Health Services.

“For so long, we’ve only had a water gun to squirt, and now we’re getting an Uzi,” said Raval-Nelson.

As the policy stands now, if inspectors find inadequate refrigeration, an infestation of mice, or spilled sewage, they can do little more than ask L&I to step in.

“Our authority has been limited to asking for a voluntary closure,” Raval-Nelson said.

Nine times out of 10, proprietors agreed to close, she said. Those who didn’t were referred to L&I.

Under the new agreement, in the works since July 2015, health officials can act on their own, said Chief Deputy City Solicitor Andrew Ross.

“It makes the process more efficient,” Ross said. “We’re not growing any new teeth, we’re just moving them from one mouth to the other.”

The discovery of vermin will trigger an automatic 48-hour closure, Raval-Nelson said.

“It’s very difficult to get rid of vermin in less time,” she said. “You can’t go running around stomping on the mice and roaches.”

Though Philadelphia has resisted issuing letter grades for restaurant sanitation, it has made health reports public through the city’s website. (They are compiled at philly.com/cleanplates.) Public attention to the issue was heightened early last year when about 100 lawyers and students were sickened after eating at Joy Tsin Lau, a frequently cited restaurant in Chinatown.

Tennessee restaurant manager ‘unaware’ of food safety requirements

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A series of food safety violations were found at a breakfast and lunch cafe in North Knoxville and that includes one violation we’ve never seen before.

Rami’s CafeThe inspector spent quite a long time, according to her report, checking this restaurant mainly because there were so many different violations and quite a lot of discussion went on with the manager.

Rami’s Cafe, 3553 N. Broadway – Grade: 74

While the grade of 74 is passing, a re-inspection is required within a week or so.

The inspector reports food temperatures were off. Chili was found at 120 degrees and mashed potatoes were at 105 degrees, but 135 degrees and above is the required temperature to slow the growth of bacteria which is the leading cause of food borne illness. The inspector ordered the mashed potatoes thrown out.

The inspector writes that she found a soiled rag on top of the grill were food is prepared. She also found cooked bacon that was ready to be served, on top of a soiled rag.

The inspector writes that she watched the cook place raw hamburgers on the grill then began touching several utensils without washing his hands first. While preparing a sandwich, the cook also touched a ready-to-ear sandwich with his bare hands without washing his hands first.

The inspector writes there was “no managerial control.” WATE 6 On Your Side has not seen this violation in a health report before.

As part of the process during each inspection, restaurant managers are asked questions about how to manage risk factors. In her report the inspector writes, the manager at Rami’s was “unaware” of food safety requirements. She recommended that the manager attend the county’s free food safety class held every month.

Hep A outbreak leads to restaurant disclosure in NJ

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Hamilton unveiled a searchable website Monday that lists inspection ratings for the township’s 500 restaurants and retail food shops in hopes of giving diners a greater peace of mind.

sopranos.food“This new website will not only provide our local restaurants patrons with added transparency to enhance consumer confidence, but will also encourage food establishments to hold themselves accountable to the highest health standards, knowing that this information will be easily accessible by the public,” Mayor Kelly Yaede said.

The website was prompted, in part, by the Hepatitis A health scare that hit the township in late 2014. In late November, a food handler at Rosa’s Restaurant and Catering fell ill with the disease and in the months following, three people who ate at the restaurant contracted the disease.

Inspection reports later revealed the restaurant had a history of health violations.

Last month, Rosa’s quietly announced that it was closing its doors, but would continue the catering portion of the business.

Yaede said all retail food establishments are inspected annually and receive ratings of “satisfactory,” “continually satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory.” The new database shows the three most recent inspection results.

Users may search the new site, hamiltonnj.com/foodsafety, by establishment name or address.

Chipotle, are you listening? ‘Food businesses in Ireland must recognize that the legal onus is on them to make sure that the food they sell or serve is safe to eat’

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The Food Safety Authority served two enforcement orders on food businesses last month.

barf.o.meter.dec.12The first was a closure order served on Earl’s Delicatessen restaurant at the School of Architecture at University College Dublin in Clonskeagh. The order was lifted two days later.

A prohibition order was also served on Sheahans Butchers in Church Street, Kerry.

During the month of January, two successful prosecutions were carried out by the HSE on Kelleghan Catering Food Stall in Tallow, Waterford and Millbridge Meats butcher in Kimmacrennan, Donegal.

Commenting on enforcement orders served in January, Dr Pamela Byrne, chief executive of the FSAI said food businesses need to be vigilant at all times in relation to food safety to ensure full compliance with food legislation.

“Food businesses must recognise that the legal onus is on them to make sure that the food they sell or serve is safe to eat,” she said. “This requires ongoing compliance with food safety and hygiene standards.”

 

UK restaurant owner jailed for food hygiene ‘one of the worst cases in 20 years’

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The owner of a restaurant that was so filthy a food safety officer said it was one of the worst cases he has seen in more than 20 years has been jailed.

Alomgir-QureshiAlomigir Qureshi, 47, was also sentenced for employing an illegal immigrant at his Chai Wallah restaurant on Yarm High Street and for breaching a suspended sentence he received in 2013 – also for employing failed asylum seekers.

Qureshi, of Brisbane Grove, Hartburn, Stockton was jailed for a total of 21 months at Teesside Crown Court earlier today (Friday, January 29).

Richard Bennett, prosecuting for both the Crown and Stockton Borough Council, told the court that the council’s food safety officers were tipped off by a member of the public who had been served chicken which was raw in the middle and another person who was concerned that the chef’s clothing “appeared filthy”.

Inspectors found dirty tea towels thrown over eggs and dough as well as dirty food preparation and storage areas, shelves and pipework. Mr Bennett said: “In the opinion of the inspectors there was a total disregard for food safety and no evidence of any good hygiene practice.”

Disclosure and sick leave: Colorado lawmaker wants restaurants to post notice if workers are not given five paid sick days

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A Colorado lawmaker is proposing a “Scarlet Letter” of sorts for statewide restaurants.

Disclosure_Still2_SnapseedState Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster, wants to require restaurant owners to have to post a notice on their door if they do not give their employees five paid sick days.

“If employees are not offered paid time off when they’re sick, then we, as the public, should know,” said Ulibarri. “If we know there’s dairy in our food or gluten in our food, we should know if there’s influenza in our food.”

He said his bill is not in response to the recent Chipotle health scare, but rather a few workers in his House district who have said they’ve had to decide between working sick and getting paid or staying home and risk their bills and their jobs.

“When there’s an economic incentive to show up to work sick, it can endanger the health of all of us,” said Ulibarri. “I’ve followed this issue and received some information from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which indicated in fact, most of the major food outbreaks are due to sick employees, not listeria or E.coli.”

Denver7 checked with CDPHE and was told that about half of all food-borne outbreaks are caused by Norovirus and not by E.coli, Listeria or other bacterial infections.

“It’s very easy for illness to be spread through a worker who’s ill,” said Brian Hlavacek, Environment Health Director for Tri-County Health Department, which covers Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas Counties. “Certainly it’s a problem that sometimes workers often work while ill.”

How LA is using data to reduce the risk of foodborne illness

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Stephanie K. Baer of The San Gabriel Valley Tribune writes, it wasn’t long ago when Los Angeles County health inspectors relied on handwritten reports manually filed in boxes to keep track of which restaurants they needed to inspect.

larry.david.rest.inspec“LA County got a late start on data management,” said Terri Williams, acting director of the county Department of Public Health’s environmental health division, which is responsible for inspecting more than 39,000 retail food facilities in the county between one and three times a year.

Now, more than two years after implementing Envision Connect, a data management system that tracks inspection data for retail food facility, food truck, housing, and swimming pool inspections, county health officials are beginning to analyze inspection data for food safety trends to help restaurants reduce the risk of foodborne illness.

They plan to meet with representatives from Chipotle in February to discuss trends at the food company’s more than 80 locations in the county as part of a pilot program aimed at helping restaurant operators improve food safety procedures.

“We’re in a position to help them help themselves too, so working together on a positive approach rather than just saying we’re going to call you in for a hearing or we’re going to tack on another inspection,” Williams said, adding the health department would like to continue the program with other large chains.

While Los Angeles County’s data analysis efforts are still in their infancy, other agencies have developed new, innovative strategies to protect consumer health at restaurants.

In Chicago, the city’s Innovation and Technology Department created an algorithm in 2014 that uses data to predict which of the city’s 15,000 food establishments are going to have critical violations, like food temperature issues or vermin infestations.

qr.code.rest.inspection.gradeThe system looks at different variables, like nearby garbage and sanitation complaints, and past inspection results to create a list of the most likely violators.

“The predictions are focused on what we call canvas inspections ‑ where am I going to send my inspectors,” said Chicago’s Chief Data Officer Tom Schenk, “What we’ve done is extract data available on (the city’s) data portal and apply analytics on top of that.”

The city also uses a tool that tracks tweets geocoded to Chicago about people complaining of food poisoning symptoms and then sends the user information about how to report their condition to the health department so it can investigate the restaurant where the person believes they got sick.

The City of Toronto, which developed its own data management system in 2001, has used inspection data to dictate food safety policy and target specific areas in the city where restaurants are experiencing similar health risks, like a cockroach or rodent infestation, said Sylvanus Thompson, Associate Director of Toronto’s food safety program.

“We can use the data to show what section of the city is in more compliance,” Thompson said, referring to an inspection map the city posts on its website.

Similar to what Los Angeles County is working toward, the city will also run reports to track the most common infractions and share that information with local restaurant associations to help them improve.

Williams said she would like to pursue strategies adopted in Chicago and Toronto, but added that the county still doesn’t have enough data to best implement them.

“I’m a big fan of data and making data-driven decisions, but you’ve got to make sure you have good data and you know what you’re doing,” she said. “We just started collecting this data.”