A video of roaches in the kitchen area of a popular metro Atlanta restaurant, The Flying Biscuit Cafe, has people talking.
In the 30-second video, posted to YouTube on June 5, viewers can see roaches crawling along the walls and on the clean dish rack. Links to the video were shared to Reddit and Twitter.
In an email, Flying Biscuit spokesperson Elisa Suri said “the video in question was filmed last year. Following this incident, we revisited our pest management process to address any potential pest concerns.” Suri went on to say the health of Flying Biscuit customers is the restaurant’s first priority.
The Candler Park location received a 92 on their food service inspection in March and an 89 on their inspection in August of 2017.
YouTube user Katherine Todd uploaded the video and noted in the caption that “part of the server sidework is to literally rinse all the dead roaches out of the espresso machine. They were sometimes found in the uncovered apple butters in the fridge.”
Flying Biscuit said the video was uploaded by a relative of a former employee, but did not elaborate.
Ana Santos of AJC.com reportsa popular adult entertainment club in Atlanta failed a restaurant health inspection this week, according to officials.
Magic City received a score of 54 on Tuesday after inspectors noted no soap or paper towels at the bar hand sink and improperly washed dishes, according to the report.
A health inspector also noted “severe” build up of debris on the soda gun and moldy sour cream.
Magic City provides bottle service, an extensive drink menu and a lunch and dinner food menu, including chicken wings and burgers.
GQ called Magic City “the most important club in the most important city in the hip-hop industry” in a 2015 documentary.
During Wednesday’s inspection, officials noted “multiple foods not covered in walk in cooler,” improperly cooling radish soup and unlabeled spices. According to the inspection report, “large food service containers” were also stored outside the restaurant and a hand-washing sink was “gushing water at the seams.”
Wednesday’s failure was the second straight on a routine inspection for Honey Pig, which bills itself as “Atlanta’s No. 1 Korean barbecue restaurant” and allows diners to cook their own meals on tabletop grills. During the restaurant’s failed January 19 inspection, officials reportedly saw a live spider crawling in dried soup stock. Points were also taken off for potential contamination of raw beef. The restaurant scored a 96/A on the follow-up to that inspection.
Laura Berrios of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a Fulton County health inspector found live roaches in the facility of a Philly & Wings Plus in southwest Atlanta. The routine inspection also turned up slime, mold and food debris in the ice machine.
Philly & Wings Plus, 1722 Campbellton Road, Atlanta, scored a 41/U, the second failing routine inspection for the restaurant.
The inspector said management needed retraining in food safety because there was a lack of awareness in key areas of risk control.
For example, points were taken off because employees were not washing their hands properly.
I’m often critical of the retail/foodservice’s focus on temperatures (cooking, cooling, holding) as the biggest noncompliance area, which gets extrapolated to what needs to be controlled.
Out of temp foods are easier to inspect for than cross-contamintation and hygiene: they are measured with a thermometer and don’t require observation of the act – so the relative number of data points skews compliance data towards temperature control. Also, norovirus is so prevalent (70% of the foodborne outbreaks are associated with food service) and temps don’t really matter with that pathogen.
Gwinnett County health officials suspended service at a Lawrenceville Hibachi Express and conducted on-site food safety training after the restaurant failed a second inspection in less than 10 days.
According to the inspection report, employees were not washing their hands when re-entering the food prep area after returning from the restroom.
Hibachi Express, 1417 Grayson Highway, Lawrenceville, scored 46/U on the follow-up inspection. The restaurant scored 63/U on a routine inspection seven days earlier, and prior to that had an 81/B.
Also, one of the restrooms had been turned into a sleeping area and was also used to store toilet paper and napkins. The other one was being used as a unisex restroom, the inspector said.
I don’t want my napkins stored in someone’s bedroom.
I started picking people up about 7 p.m. Amanda, Sarah, Janis, Lynn and Marty.
Marty was last and not ready, as usual.
Marty had no reason going to the first food safety educators conference in Washington, D.C. in 1997. He was working as a student life advisor or something but, I had gotten in the habit of taking Marty along on the 12-hour D.C. road trip from Guelph –got lost once in some New York mountains in the middle of the night and thought we were going to die – for fun and driving chores.
The 1996 Nissan Quest minivan still had the new car smell, and as a new prof with a carload of students, I decided driving all night was better than dishing out non-existent cash for an extra night of hotel rooms.
We arrived in Georgetown about 7:30 a.m., ate at a dive, and found the on-campus conference room. People looked at us like we had just rolled out of a vehicle and been driving all night.
We had.
Most of us went and changed into fresh clothes, while Marty crashed somewhere until the room was available.
The conference started and we were pumped.
I may have fallen asleep.
I remember that Peter Sandman gave a keynote and was treated like a rock star – I thought he was ineffectual, especially when it came to the hazard and outrage around foodborne illness.
There was a big deal about social marketing, presented to the attendees like we had all arrived on the short bus.
I remember going out to a Georgetown bar later that night, watching The Truth About Cats and Dogs in the hotel room while Marty farted, and commenting that Janis looked like Janeane Garofalo. I remember the drive home.
I don’t remember much about the conference.
Which is why I haven’t gone back.
Tomorrow, the International 2010 Food Safety Education Conference kicks off in Atlanta and its focus is to identify “communication and education strategies to increase the public’s knowledge of the causes of foodborne illnesses and improve food safety practices.”
Admirable goals. But what has happened since 1997?
I’m all for providing food safety information in a compelling, creative and critically-sound manner. However education is something people do themselves. Lewis Lapham wrote in Harper’s magazine in the mid-1980s about how individuals can choose to educate themselves about all sorts of interesting things, but the idea of educating someone is doomed to failure. Oh, and it’s sorta arrogant to state that others need to be educated; to imply that if only you understood the world as I understand the world, we would agree and dissent would be minimized.
These may be subtle semantics – to communicate with rather than to; to inform rather than educate – but they set an important tone.
At least it’s not a consumer food safety education conference. With outbreaks in pizza, pot pies, pet food, peanut butter, bagged spinach, carrot juice, lettuce, tomatoes, canned chili sauce, hot peppers, cookie dough, and white pepper, I’m not sure what consumers have to do with it.
Chapman is going, apparently as part of a southeast IKEA tour for his wife, and also to present a paper we wrote entitled, I updated my Facebook status to ‘I just got food poisoning:’ using social networking services (SNS) to communicate food safety risks. The abstract is below.
Me, I’ll be hanging out somewhat east of the 100th meridian, wondering why Americans don’t understand The Tragically Hip (especially the early stuff).
Chapman, B. and Powell, D. 2010. I updated my Facebook status to “I just got food poisoning”: using social networking services (SNS) to communicate food safety risks. FSIS/NSF Food Safety Education Conference. March 24, 2010. Atlanta Georgia.
Up to 30 per cent of individuals in developed countries become ill from the food and water they consume each year. Recent outbreaks of foodborne illness involving produce, peanut butter and potpies have further elevated the public discussion of microbial food safety risks. With the expansion and ease-of-use of non-traditional, Internet-based communication tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube and blogs, individuals are discussing high-profile food crises online. As an estimated 60 per cent of online American adults use SNS, an opportunity exists to utilize these communities to engage individuals around foodborne risks by providing information and establishing relationships, to prepare for or mitigate potential catastrophic incidents. The rapid dialogue between individuals with common food safety interests can impact belief formation and affect food decisions. Using case study methodology and media analysis of the coverage of recent outbreaks of E. coli O157 linked to spinach and Salmonella linked to fresh tomatoes and peppers, a catalogue of mediums and will be presented. Through examples gleaned from barfblog.com and bites.ksu.edu an online food safety communication template and strategies for food safety communicators will also be presented. Understanding target audiences, using communication technology while providing rapid messages can enhance both risk management awareness and trust with stakeholders. Communicators developing food risk behavior change programs can be more effective by monitoring and utilizing diverse media to adjust strategies and maintain message relevance.
I have no idea who runs food safety at Kellogg, but what is going on?
Kellogg uncritically accepts a BS audit of Peanut Corporation of America and is forced to recall hundreds of peanut pasty cracker thingies, their CEO testifies in Washington – with a straight face – that the federal government needs to do better on food safety, and on the same day, today, that Kellogg sponsors a Supermarket News Internet bit about how industry can’t wait for government on food safety steps, U.S. food safety regulators made public a January warning letter to Eggo waffle maker Kellogg Co in which they said the company had not gone far enough to address food safety violations at its Atlanta frozen food plant.
Reuters reports tonight that in October 2009 Atlanta plant inspection found bacterial contamination and sanitation violations such as improper handling of trash and food, and insufficiently sanitized equipment, the FDA said.
The FDA’s letter, dated Jan. 27, comes after the Georgia Department of Agriculture found Listeria bacteria in Eggo Buttermilk Waffles on Aug. 31.
Kellogg’s plant had "significant deviations" from the manufacturing practices for food manufacturers and Kellogg’s response so far had not addressed the violations, the agency wrote.
Kellogg said on Tuesday it has fully addressed all of the violations and that its response to the FDA letter would be filed shortly.
was working as a student life advisor or something but, I had gotten in the habit of taking Marty along on the 12-hour D.C. road trip from Guelph –got lost once in some New York mountains in the middle of the night and thought we were going to die – for fun and driving chores.
Kellogg uncritically accepts a BS audit of Peanut Corporation of America and is forced to recall hundreds of peanut pasty cracker thingies, their