A Kendall big box store’s unsafe pastelitos trashed as inspectors note handwashing issues
Pastelitos got trashed and equipment got taken out of action by a state inspection of a West Kendall BJ’s Wholesale Club.
The Florida Department of Agriculture has the responsibility of checking out places that sell packaged food, from big box stores to supermarkets to Barnes & Nobles stores. Inspectors Catalina Ordonez and Wenndy Ayerdis gave the BJ’s at 16800 SW 88th St. the lowest result for Ag Department inspections, “Re-Inspection Required.”
READ MORE: Mold on food is one of the reasons a Miami-Dade Fresh Market failed state inspection
Here are some of the problems Inspectors Ordonez and Ayerdis, who will return on or before Wednesday, found at the BJ’s on March 6.
▪ “Person in charge does not ensure active managerial control in the establishment as evidenced by violations on the inspection report: cooling temperatures, equipment sanitation and hand washing.”
In the retail area’s hot holding area, where the food needs to be kept at 135 degrees or above, cheese pastelitos, guava and cheese pastelitos and Danish cheese pastries all were measured at 69 degrees. The inspectors fired Stop Sales on eight eight-count boxes of Wellsley Farms cheese pastelitos; four 15-count boxes and three six-count boxes of Wellsley Farms mixed danish; and eight eight-count boxes of guava y queso pastelitos.
All basura.
▪ Also in the retail area, “Multiple packages of ground beef ground and packaged in the morning were found at 45 degrees and placed directly at the customer reach-in the retail meat display.” Instead of being hit with Stop Sales, the ground beef got taken out of the reach-in cooler and put into refrigeration until the beef measured under 41 degrees.
In the meat department, there were “multiple broken blades on the rear blade of the meat tenderizer.” A Stop-Use Order sidelined the meat tenderizer.
▪ A cheese slicer in the deli area was “found with old food residue on plate and blade.”
▪ In the meat, deli and food service areas, “food employees did not wash hands between entering and exiting food preparation area and handling food items.”
▪ The handwash sink in the processing area’s walk-in cooler was blocked by “several rolling carts” and, perhaps ironically, there was no cold water available.
▪ “Water is leaking from the condensing unit inside the deli walk-in cooler.”
▪ “No handwash sink is available at the food sampling stations located throughout the retail area.”
▪ In the deli section, “a direct connection exists between the preparation sink and the sewage system.” That means if there’s a sewage backup, there’s nothing to keep the problem from befouling the prep sink (which is not something you want befouled).
