Hand washing in a bucket and mold on plantains among ‘Gross Grocer’ violations
Bet you’ll now start paying attention to those hand-washing violations among South Florida’s “Gross Grocers.”
Just as with hepatitis A, which swept through Florida in record numbers last year, proper hand washing is considered the first line of defense against coronavirus. As we’ve said before, that’s why inspectors don’t play when it comes to places having unobstructed access to a sink dedicated solely for hand washing — and that sink having hot water, soap and a method of drying hands afterward.
It’s not an accident that the grocers on this list almost always have hand-washing violations. Being slipshod in executing this most fundamental of hygiene acts likely indicates how the rest of food safety gets handled.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Agriculture inspections of supermarkets, grocery stores, bodegas, convenience stores, food processors and food storage facilities. If you see a problem at such a place, don’t email us. Click here and file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how often. We report without passion or prejudice, but with humor on a BOGO sale.
Also, at the bottom, we list major chains whose stores passed inspection, so you can check if your favorite place to shop passed an official once-over.
And, we go in alphabetical order.
Arch Café, 1395 Brickell Ave., Miami: “Cafe area, food employees multi-tasking, entering and exiting the area, working at the cashier, touching hair and face and continue to work with open food service without washing their hands.”
Then, again, where wasn’t any soap at the hand wash sink by the coffeemaker in the cafe area.
Somebody needed to rid of the old food. That’s the open packages of lunch meat date marked to allow them to be there for eight days (seven is the limit) and the “old yellow food residue in between the blade, blade guard, on the bottom blade cover and on the pusher tool” of the lunch meat slicer.
Should we mention all the food kept at unsafe temperatures in the cold case unit under the oven? The sliced ham, sliced turkey, American cheese, Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, tuna salad and chicken salad? Maybe not, as they got trashed.
Beeline Market, 14680 Park of Commerce Blvd., Jupiter: No soap in the men’s rest room handwash sink. Apparently, they can’t spare a SoftSoap for there or for the handwash sink next to the ice machine. For the latter, there was dry the hands after you wet them (because you’re not washing them without soap).
Inside that ice machine, an “accumulation of mold.”
The open display cooler, where things are supposed to be 41 degrees or below, measured 50 degrees. A Stop Use Order came down on that. As for the food inside the cooler — Lunchables, yogurt, smoked white turkey cheese sandwiches, ham wraps and hard-boiled eggs — basura.
There’s some Addams Family decor going on over at the three-compartment sink. “Dead roaches in a trap and dead flies inside a container on a shelf above the three-compartment sink” and “spider web on ceiling above the three-compartment sink.”
Brothers Bakery, 2992 NW 55th Ave., Lauderhill: “Observed food employee dip hands in bucket of water behind cashier counter to cleanse hands before donning gloves.”
“No hand sink provided in food packaging/hot holding area by cash register.”
In the bakery area, no soap or hot water at the handwash sink by the ware washing sink.
Cooked chicken patties, fish patties and peanut brittle made in someone’s home got spotted. Home cooking is a no-no.
“Insects found on pan of dough stored inside service freezer by ware wash sink.”
“Several live roaches crawling around and under ware wash sink, under the prep table by bakery entrance, on the wall behind and floor under the mop sink.”
Canaan Trading Company, 11245 NW 131st St., North Miami-Dade: This food distributor made the Jan. 20 list for the birds hanging out in dry storage. It happened again.
“In the section of dry storage, where food products are stored, several live birds on metal beams of high ceiling. Also, observed several bay doors remained opened during the time of the inspection with no loading or unloading activities in progress.”
Clearly, the folks at Canaan just don’t want to close the door. Maybe they really are trying to air condition the whole neighborhood.
Chef Ness Bakery Boca, 7160 Beracasa Way, Boca Raton: In the backroom area, after someone uses the toilet, they have to travel to wash their hands.
“The hand wash sink in the restroom and adjacent to the three-compartment sink is in disrepair. Food employees need to go all the way near retail area to wash their hands.”
Also in the backroom area, “clean knives stored in gap between the wall and the three-compartment sink.” Go look at similar gaps in your kitchen. Would you want anything stored in there to touch food or anything you aren’t planning on killing?
The yellow rice, white rice, honey mustard salmon, herb salmon, kugel, oven roasted vegetables in the cold-holding case measured at 52 to 65 degrees. Or, not even close to the 41 or below they need to be. Trash.
In the bakery area, “observed live roach on the wall across from the hand wash and prep sinks. Also, observed dead roaches inside proofer and on the floor near the proofer.”
Dollar Tree, 125 Hypoluxo Rd., Hypoluxo: No proof of an approved wastewater disposal system.
Doucette Mobil, 10345 S. Dixie Hwy, South Miami-Dade: ”Restroom faucet does not allow flow for at least 15 seconds to allow hot water.”
And the employee restroom door opens right on to the food service area.
In the walk-in cooler, “multiple items probed and found above 41 degrees: tuna salad, sliced ham, gallon of milk and raw chicken.
But, we have to say, it’s not gas station sushi, but if you’re buying raw chicken at the Mobil station, you really need to review several steps in your decision-making process.
5 Star Food Market, 598 NW 15th St., Pompano Beach: Blow on them? Wipe them on your pants? In neither the warewash area nor the retail area did these folks provide a way for workers to dry their hands after washing.
“Roaches observed on wall above warewash sink and on a box adjacent to the sink.”
Broken floor tiles throughout the retail and warewash areas.
Flowers Baking Company of Miami, 2700 NW 122nd St., North Miami-Dade: More birds.
“Observed inside the dry storage area where breads are stored, live birds flying around the facility.”
Employees reopened the bay doors and released the birds. But the rolling doors had been left open unnecessarily and had gaps when they they were closed.
Jada Foods, 3126 John P. Curci Dr., Hallandale Beach: At this wholesale bakery, the inspector saw one worker “switch from packing meringues to picking up a dolly from the floor and returning to pack meringues without washing hands and changing gloves;” another employee do the same with a container instead of a dolly; and a third touch his face between meringue picking.
Then again, there was no hand washing sink in the room where the ready-to-eat meringues were packaged. They moved the process to an area with a hand washing sink.
Kings Supermarket, 1000 36th St., West Palm Beach: “Observed green fuzzy growth build up on packages of ready-to-eat cheese, bread, tomato, multicolored peppers, yam and sausage.”
Wonder if that’s what killed the flies the inspector saw lying among food debris and spillage on floors and shelves.
In the backroom, the inspector saw, “leafy green vegetable pieces on floor in walk-in cooler” and “stained walls with sticky accumulation in the walk-in produce cooler. Fan guards on the produce condenser unit have dust accumulation. Food debris and dead roaches observed in electrical room.”
“All the drains in the backroom, meat processing area, produce room, receiving area, and inside walk-in coolers are clogged with food debris and trash accumulation.”
“Air curtains between meat processing area and backstock have discolored mold-like accumulation.”
Problems above (“Ceiling tiles stained damaged or missing”) and below (“floor tiles are pitted, cracked or missing”) in all the food aisles, the backstock area and the produce area. Just the floor inside the walk-in coolers, freezers and meat processing area.
You probably don’t want to know what’s growing under that flawed floor.
Los Hermanos, 501 NW 12th Ave., Miami: No water bill showing the drinking water comes from an approved source and no sewer bill showing an approved facility is used for waste disposal.
One Stop Food Market, 18 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale: “No hand soap provided at hand sink inside the employee toilet room.”
With that, you want to trust the “pickled cabbage made in a private home?” Whether you do or not, that’s illegal and got tossed.
“Grease and dry food particles accumulated on hot dog cradles of hot dog machine.”
“Dry food particles accumulated on tongs by pickled sausages and eggs.”
Maybe the hot units should’ve been called the lukewarm units. Neither one could keep hot dogs nor pans of fried chicken out of the temperature danger zone. Garbage.
Judging from the milk, bottled smoothies, shredded cheese, pickled cabbage, raw chicken and packs of sausage that went the way of all the hot dogs and chicken, their coolers might as well be cardboard boxes. Which is why the retail area walk-in cooler, the kitchen area reach-in Monster cooler and a reach-in service cooler got hit with Stop Use Orders.
7-Eleven, 9695 North Kendall Dr., West Miami-Dade: Hope you don’t hang around too long after downing that Big Gulp. There’s “no hot water available in the unisex restroom.”
There’s not even a hand sink in the backroom with the warewash sink. If they don’t get that corrected soon, no Slurpees or munchies will be sold.
“Food employee observed not sanitizing thermometer prior to probing food products to measure internal temperature.”
The whole milk and the half milk at the coffee station was the kind of warm that warms the insides — on the way back up.
Shagalla, 8362 NW 70th St., West Miami-Dade: In this fish processing place, “the hand sink inside the fish processing room was missing soap ... and not maintained clean to properly wash and sanitize hands.”
“Receiving doors maintained open throughout the time of inspection, observed flies in the staging areas holding branzino in covered styrofoam coolers.”
The processing room drains were clogged by fish scales.
Sham Hookah Café and Bakery, 4300 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation: No toilet tissue in the restroom. Hope you don’t just use your hand because the hand washing sink doesn’t have soap or paper towels.
Same thing, in the kitchen, you can’t get to the handwash sink anyway. Guess they couldn’t get to the insect traps, either.
“Observed glue traps that have not been removed after insects have filled up the tray.”
Soriano’s Quick Mart, 14700 SW 56th St., West Miami-Dade: “Food employee not washing hands before donning gloves after entering food service area from retail area” and “food employee not changing gloves after entering food service area from retail area.”
We’re not crazy about black olives. This isn’t helping. In the walk-in cooler, “mold-like substance found inside of a container of sliced black olives on shelf in front of door.”
The hot holding unit wasn’t hot enough — not ... even ... close — to prevent the cheese bread, sausage bread and the ham and cheese bread from being potential bacteria baths. Same for the rice pudding in the cold holding unit.
T A C Tortilla Factory, 5386 10th Ave., Greenacres: This is the Ag Department’s first visit in two years. Wonder if these are the same plantains and onions.
“Black mold-like build up on plantains inside chest freezer in front of walk-in cooler” and “Black mold-like build up on white onions in retail shelf.”
The mold got around. “Scored and black mold-like build up on cutting boards” and “black mold-like build-up inside the ice machine”
It was 10 days since the tomatoes in the walk-in cooler were cut and the pork tripe gravy was made and 25 days since the packaged deli meat in the display case had been opened.
“Bags of raw chicken and raw pork not covered inside walk in cooler
Many flies. Not much handwashing.
No soap or way to dry hands at the handwash sink near the three-compartment sink. No way to dry hands in the unisex restroom. No hot water at the hand washing sink near the food processing area’s three-compartment sink or at the one in the food service area behind the meat display case.
Cracked and stained ceiling and floor tiles in the warewashing area, food service area and tortilla processing area.
Tortilleria Taqueria Incorporated, 1581 S. State Road 7, North Lauderdale: “Backroom area — employee repacking corn tortillas with bare hands.”
Now, let’s check the hand washing set up in the backroom, shall we?
“Backroom area — no hot water available at hand washing sink.” “Backroom area — hand washing sink missing soap. Meat area —hand washing sink missing soap.”
“Backroom area hand washing sink missing disposable paper towel or hand drying device. Meat area hand washing sink missing disposable paper towel or hand drying device.”
All of this was “corrected on scene.” But that just says TTI could’ve done it right and not gotten cited, it just didn’t care enough to do so.
“Soil build and dead insects on floor behind table.” A love roach on the floor of the meat area, where fat, sugar and flour were stored on the floor.
“Containers with food stored in stand-up reach-in coolers not covered.”
“Soil and old food debris in tortilla maker machine.” Not what you want to see in a place with “tortilla” in the name.
“Employee not sanitizing utensils after washing and rinsing them.”
Chicken soup, picadillo, mozzarella, deli meats, tomatoes all got tossed for temperature abuse.
Temperature of chicken soup cooked day before inside walk in cooler was 48.
Yamy Bakery, 1561 W. Okeechobee Rd., Hialeah: “Observed employee washing dirty utensils and continuing preparing food without washing her hands.”
In the food service area, “Found orange juice machine with old dry products, residues and mold.”
“Food utensils stored inside draw as clean and found evidence of old dry product residue and dirt.”
“Slicer machine with evidence of old dry product residue in food contact areas.”
Major chains with stores that passed inspection
Dollar General: 6971 Taft St., Hollywood; 2797 N. Andrews Ave., Wilton Manors.
Dollar Tree: 4601 NW 199th St., Miami Gardens
Family Dollar: 6039 Kimberly Blvd., North Lauderdale
The Fresh Market: 1800 West Ave., Miami Beach
Publix: 9951 Miramar Pkwy., Miramar; 9359 Sheridan St., Pembroke Pines; 10024 Griffin Rd., Cooper City; 3400 N. Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale.
Sedano’s: 10720 W. Flagler St., West Miami-Dade.
Walmart: 15885 SW 88th St., Kendall; 5571 W. Hillsboro Blvd., Coconut Creek; 6931 NW 88th Ave., Tamarac.
Winn-Dixie: 3275 Coral Way, Coral Gables; 941 W. State Rd. 84, Fort Lauderdale; 7915 S. Dixie Hwy, West Palm Beach.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 1:18 PM.
