Food
Unsafe food at Publix, roaches at Don Pan, a Hialeah bakery: Miami-Dade’s Gross Grocers
Three Miami-Dade food sellers — a Publix, a Don Pan and a Hialeah bakery — failed inspection last week, making the most recent Miami Herald Gross Grocers’ list.
Before we get rolling, let’s repeat the relevant numbers for food storage. If you’re storing cooked food in hot holding, it needs to be at or above 135. If you’re storing any food in cold storage, it needs to be at or below 41 degrees. Outside those ranges, the food becomes The Bacteria Love Boat.
THIS IS NOT FILLER, PEOPLE. PLEASE, READ IT: Unlike Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation inspections of restaurants, failing doesn’t mean a store gets closed until it passes. But parts of the store can be put under a Stop Use order until the problem gets properly addressed. Obviously, if a place gets enough Stop Use orders, it might not have enough parts it can use to make opening worthwhile.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Agriculture inspection of supermarkets and food distributors in Miami-Dade and Broward. If you want a place inspected or want to report a problem, don’t email us. Go to the Department of Agriculture website and file a complaint.
We don’t decide who gets inspected or how strictly they get inspected. We really don’t. We report without passion or prejudice, but with humor on BOGO.
In alphabetical order...
Cary Bakery, 1849 NW 21st St., Miami: The roaches got around.
In the backroom and kitchen, “small, live roaches” were seen on a rolling rack and wall in a walk-in cooler, in the hinges between the door and body of a rolling proofer rack, on the floor next to the baker’s tables.
That rolling rack with the roaches? It also had raw chicken that measured 60 degrees. So, even without the roaches, it was getting tossed, just like the 52-degree box of cream cheese on a walk-in shelf.
In the backroom, a “brown, mold-like growth” was seen on various parts, including the ice chute surface, of the ice machine. Inspector James Zheng hit that with a Stop Use Order.
The deli slicer stored on a kitchen prep table had “old food residue on the slicer blade and blade guard.”
One handwashing sink had no soap and another was broken. Cary has until Sept. 1 to get that repaired with running water — cold and hot — or face more punitive actions.
Don Pan Bakery, 6772 Collins Ave., Miami Beach: Even way back in the McDLT days at MickeyD’s, you’d get hit by manager lightning if you handled money, then touched food without washing your hands. Inspector Simeon Carrero spotted “several employees” doing just that at this Don Pan.
Of course, the importance of hand washing at this Don Pan can be questioned, seeing as how a handwash sink was “blocked with dirty plates, forks and spoons.”
He also saw “old soil build up on a deli slicer” and “several dead roaches under the mop sink.”
In the food service area, “several ham and cheese cachitos stuffed breads in hot holding measured only 98 degrees to 112 degrees — or room temperature at the house of the grandparent who refuses to get air conditioning. The walk-in cooler had sliced ham and diced ham that measured 42 degrees to 60 degrees.
Everybody out of the pool and into the garbage.
Inspector Carrero noted, “Front of establishment, back room, food service, processing area, walk-in cooler areas observed soil and debris throughout the establishment.”
Publix, 5715 NW Seventh St., Miami: Food, not vermin, appeared to be the problem at this Publix.
First, Inspector Zheng found no paper towels at hand washing sinks in the produce and bakery areas (you’re Publix. Grab some Bounty, charge yourself or put it under whatever column you want and move on...).
In the bakery, a pan washer was “found in disrepair and was unable to achieve a color change on the heat sensitive tape placed on a metal pan after being run through two cycles.” That earned a Stop Use Order.
Now to the food thrown out for being outside safe temperatures.
In the retail area, honeydew chunks; green leaf salad; small fruit salad with watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe; “multiple deli meat and cheese” items; turkey salad; chicken tender wrap; turkey Cobb salad; beef Jamaican patties; and prepackaged Italian blend salad.
No one could say which of the 11 salmon patties had been open for too long.
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