Tag Archives: inspection

Chicago Cubs suck at baseball; Wrigley Field sucks at food

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Pam Zekman of WBBM-TV Chicago reports nine of the 35 concession stands at Wrigley Field faced critical violations after inspectors found things such as black slime in an ice machine, food that wasn’t prepared properly and other food safety and handling violations.

Zekman reports that the city’s health department had conducted inspections when games weren’t played at Wrigley Field and other ballparks and arenas. Now they do inspections on event days.

A total of 20 critical violations were found at nine booths, three that were shut down. City inspection results resulted in more than 24 pounds of hot dogs, sausages and hamburgers being thrown out from five different concession areas.

“It’s extremely important because it is while the concession stand is working and serving customers that all the rules about food safety, food handling, are even more important,” food safety expert Kantha Shelke told Zekman.

Tia Keenan live tweets a DOH inspection at Brushstroke in NYC

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 Tia Keenan
We are the well-heeled and we are PISSED that the Health Dept. is disturbing our dinner at Brushstroke. Tsk tsk.

Not everyone responds well to an inspection by health types.

Eater NY documents the live tweets of cheese guru Tia Keenen who had her meal at upscale David Bouley restaurant Brushstroke interrupted by a DOH inspection. Excerpts include:

@kasekaiserina
Tia Keenan
This crowd is not accustomed to enduring the petty injustices of Bureaucracy! They don’t wait for anything! Take your walk-in temp and gtfo.

Tia Keenan
Oh god the inspector is taking the temp of a custard.

Tia Keenan
Our meal has stopped. RT if you know the NYC Health Dept is an extortion racket.

Tia Keenan
Obligatory bow-tied wasp yelling at inspector “Leave! We don’t want you here!”

Tia Keenan
Sassy waiter at Brushstroke last night told us if we didn’t like something we could go across the street to Ninja!!!! So awesome.

Food hazards found at Seattle-area farmers markets

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 Heading out to the farmer’s market Saturday morning for some tasty wares?

King County health officials (that’s the Seattle area) have found so many hazardous food practices at farmers markets this year, ranging from poor hand-washing to unsafe food temperatures, that they’re proposing a five-fold increase in permitting fees.

Vanessa Ho of Seattlepi.com reports that in 265 routine inspections of farmers markets this year, health officials found 252 violations, of which 189 were considered "red critical." The inspections covered an eight-month period of roughly 40 markets.

To deal with the number and severity of risks, Public Health – Seattle & King County has proposed hiking a market’s annual permitting fee from $100 to $502.

"On the one hand, it’s a big jump in cost," Chris Curtis, director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in Seattle, said Friday.

"But on the other hand, I think we’re coming up with better compliance."

Burger King bolstering food safety after failed inspections

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 A week after Washington State health types made Burger King Corp. aware of a problem with its burger cooking process, the company says that it’s inspecting its systems on the West Coast to determine what changes need to be made.

Most of the undercooking was due to problems with a flame broiler and employees failing to discard undercooked patties.

Susan Shelton, environmental health specialist for the Benton Franklin Health District, said the problem in a nutshell was one of being unfamiliar with the new technology.

"It wasn’t cooking to temperature because there were a lot of controls. When we started working with them, it was resolved."

The health district received no complaints about undercooked food or illnesses, and no lab samples were positive for bacteria or other illness-causing contaminants, she added.

Food safety at grocery stores after a hurricane

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 WWBT in Virginia asks, what do grocers do in the aftermath of a hurricane?

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, supermarket Martins had to go through a list of inspections. The store checked the temperature of the foods, then an internal auditor double checked.

"We actually had visits from the health department and the department of agriculture," said Martins Regional Vice President, Jim Scanlon.

Martins passed with flying colors, but not all food stores could be as reliable.

That’s why shoppers like Autumn Harbour who lost power for nearly 5 days takes extra care when filling the cart.

Melbourne’s dirtiest restaurants downtown

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 Melbourne’s CBD (central business district) has the most restaurants in the state breaching food safety laws, according to a register of convictions that names and shames Victorian eateries.

Thirty-six individuals and businesses representing 24 restaurants have been named on the register since the Brumby government set it up on July 1 last year.

Eleven of the convictions on the register are against restaurants within Melbourne’s CBD.

Asian restaurants and grocery stores appear to be the worst offenders, making up almost half of all convictions.? But the list also contain bakeries, a cafe attached to a car wash and a venue operating at the popular Queen Victoria Market.

The offences include:?- failing to remove pests living in the premises;?- smoking near food preparation areas;?- not storing potentially hazardous food correctly;?- not providing soap and warm water for food handlers;?- having no means of drying hands to reduce the risk of contamination; and?- having kitchens with an accumulation of garbage, food waste, dirt or grease.

The worst offenders include Noodle Kingdom, whose owners were ordered to fork out $70,000 for various breaches.

Passing the blame: ‘unreliable students and migrants’ reason Melbourne cockroach-infested eatery fined $20,000

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A Melbourne restaurant has been fined $20,000 after an inspector found its kitchen infested with cockroaches, rodent droppings and accumulated grease, dirt and food waste.

A director of Ten Ren’s Tea Station agreed to temporarily shut its upstairs kitchen on March 7 this year – after a complaint from a customer – when authorities feared for public health.

Senior magistrate Dan Muling yesterday said there was no justification or excuse for the conditions and told its directors they ”wouldn’t have your own kitchen looking like this”.

Prosecutor Sebastian Reid said the initial inspection revealed the kitchen to have ”heavy infestation” of cockroaches, some rodent activity and no method to sanitise food contact surfaces and utensils.

Mr Reid listed more than 30 examples of Food Act breaches to walls, the floor, bowls, fridges and freezers, shelves, door seals, handles, exhaust hood and microwave oven.
These included a high number of live and nesting cockroaches, rodent droppings and heavy accumulation of grease, dirt, food waste and rubbish on the floor, under fridges, cooking equipment and kitchen benches.

Defence barrister Tim Bourke said the directors started the restaurant in 2008 and had employed unreliable students and migrants.

New York mayor wants letter grades for food carts

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The New York Daily News reports that the new system of grading city restaurants has been such a success Mayor Bloomberg said Monday that he wants to expand it to the city’s roving fleet of food carts.

"Personally, I would love to see before I buy from a cart a sign up there telling whether or not the guy washed his hands before he reaches in and pulls out the hot dog, Bloomberg said at an event trumpeting the benefits of letter grades for city eateries.

"I love to eat from the street vendors too," he said.

However, Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said, "It is more complicated because (the carts) are not always out there," Farley said.

Bloomberg crowed that since the city instituted the letter-grading system a year ago, Big Apple restaurant have been spared $3 million in fines by earning A-grades.

While overall fines shot up from $32 million to $42 million, Bloomberg said the bite would have been worse if restaurants making fast improvements hadn’t had their fines waived.
 

Inspectors found roaches and temperature violations at some FLORIDA theme park restaurants

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There’s nothing like going to a Florida theme park in July when temperatures are ridiculous. Orlando was built on a swamp.

But, I’ve been doing it ever since I was a kid, and if it’s going to be 105F in Kansas, I might as well be in Sarasota with a 90-minute drive to theme park heaven.

ABC Action News reports in a special I-Team investigation, we looked through over 250 restaurant inspection reports from the Division of Hotels and Restaurants in and around the amusement parks, including Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Busch Gardens, Universal and surrounding areas.

For the most part, the amusement park restaurants seemed to keep their places clean. But we found two restaurants at Magic Kingdom on North Monorail Way in Bay Lake that might make you think twice about how magical things are in the kitchens.

The Crystal Palace advertises that you can join Winnie the Pooh and friends at a bountiful buffet but state inspectors found food they serve at dangerous temperatures. On June 9, 2011 Crystal Palace had to throw out two large pans of shrimp and 10 pounds of NY strip beef because they were not properly cooled overnight from 135 degrees to 70 degrees in 2 hours and then from 70 degrees to 41 degrees in 4 hours. The restaurant also had to toss out over 8 pounds of grape jelly because the cans were rusted and not in good condition. Crystal Palace had a total of 25 violations during that June 9th inspection, accumulating 13 critical violations and 12 non-critical violations.

Broadway theaters get served with health department violations

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WNYC reports that even though they’re not cooking any food, Broadway theaters are getting letter grades from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Broadway venues, along with Off-Broadway and movie theaters, are included in the city’s restaurant grading program because they operate concession stands. Many of the stands aren’t performing very well.

Although final grades are still pending for most theaters, at least 15 of them have already been written up for violations that range from mice to bad plumbing in preliminary inspections.

According to Variety editor Gordon Cox, theaters are getting bad scores because they are housed in very old buildings.

In a written statement, a health department spokesperson said, "Even with the limited food and drink offerings typically found at theaters, there is a risk of food borne illness if food safety practices are not followed."