WTSP – Tampa Bay’s news leader – reports that of the hundreds of grocery stores across the Bay area, seven received failing ratings in the latest round of inspections by the State Division of Food Safety. 

According to Florida state guidelines, a poor rating indicates the grocery store was found to be unsatisfactory in meeting sanitation requirements on the day the inspector entered the store.

Good and fair ratings are considered passing and in compliance with sanitation requirements.

The businesses on the list of failing stores include:

• ALDI at 14933 North Florida Ave., Tampa
• La Fiesta Mexican Convenience Store, 1202 S. 22nd St. Tampa
• Rejax Meat Market, 2327 Dr. MLK Jr. St., St. Pete
• Save-A-Lot, at 8854 State Road 52, Hudson
• Costco, at 10921 Causeway Blvd., Brandon
• Kasa Xpress Market, 7020 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven
• El Rancho Mejicano, at 5648 SR 674, Wimauma

Violations that trigger a failing grade vary but usually include conditions that can possibly lead to public illness.

On an Oct. 14 inspection of the Rejax Meat Market, the inspector reported finding evidence of insects and/or rodents, with rodent droppings on a shelf in the back room.

An Oct. 27 inspection of the Kasa Xpress Market, the state reports finding live roaches in the storage cupboard, eggs stored at improper temperature, and no soap at an employee sink.

Florida restaurant inspectors decided to flex some muscle recently and temporarily closed a bunch of restaurants across the state.

Vermin infestations and other critical violations of state sanitation and safety laws found by inspectors at three South Florida restaurants last week prompted the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation to temporarily close them.

Omar Seafoods, 2111 N.W. 10th Ave., Miami was temporarily closed Aug. 11 for 5 critical violations. A health and safety inspector observed ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food prepared on site and held more than 24 hours that was not properly date-marked; there was no conspicuously located thermometer in a holding unit; a required consumer advisory for raw/undercooked animal food was not provided and was corrected on site and potentially hazardous food in the pastry hot box that contained beef and cheese was not held at 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Also, more than 50 live roaches were found in the kitchen: more than 40 were on a wire shelf, underneath prep tables, inside the oven and on the floor, and more than 10 roaches were seen in a storage room, 15-feet away from the kitchen.

L’Express Sandwisherie at SBS Tower, 2601 S. Bayshore Drive, Miami was closed Aug. 8 for operating without a license and 11 other critical violations that included no hand-washing sign, cleanser or drying provisions at an employee hand-washing sink; improper temperatures of hot and cold, potentially hazardous foods; an employee was observed preparing food, handling clean equipment or touching single-service items without washing hands; the food manager lacked proof of certification; sanitizer was not used in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations; a hand-wash sink was used for other purposes; no 3-compartment sink was provided and the men’s room was closed.

El Tio Coin Laundry & Cafeteria, 1664 N.W. 17th Ave., Miami was briefly closed Aug. 9 with 11 critical violations that included a rodent infestation. Other citations were for ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food that was prepared on site and held more than 24-hours that was not properly date-marked; raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in a reach-in cooler; hand-washing sinks in rest rooms lacked drying provisions; no proof of required employee training provided; slime was built up in the ice machine; food was stored in ice used for drinks; a food preparation employee wore jewelry other than a plain ring on his or her hands/arms; there were no hand-washing signs at sinks used by employees; no conspicuously located thermometer in a holding unit; no chemical test kit for sanitizer at the 3-compartment sink or ware-washing machine and more than 63 fresh rodent droppings were found on kitchen shelves above the 3-compartment sink, underneath the microwave and grill table and on the floor.

Four Jacksonville-area restaurants — including three at River City Marketplace — were forced to temporarily close last week after a state inspector found excessive roach activity during routine, unannounced visits.

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant, A & D Buffalos and Salsarita's Fresh Cantina each closed briefly to address conditions that posed "an elevated risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public."

A fourth restaurant, Pasta Market Italian Restaurant in Orange Park, also briefly closed to correct problems noted in an inspector's report.
 

After making 529 people sick in a March 2009 outbreak of norovirus at his Fat Duck restaurant, Heston Blumenthal says he has stopped serving raw oysters.

At least that’s what he told the New Zealand Herald yesterday.

"I've not served an oyster in here, in the Crown, in the Duck or in London since that happened. I don't know if I'll ever change."

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised consumers, restaurant operators, commercial shippers and processors of shellfish not to eat, serve, purchase, sell or ship oysters from Area 1642 in Apalachicola Bay, Fla. because the oysters may be contaminated with toxigenic Vibrio cholerae serogroup O75.

• Nine persons have been reported with illness. For eight, the illness was confirmed as caused by toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O75; laboratory confirmation is pending in the other person. No one was hospitalized or died.

• All ill persons reported consumption of raw or lightly steamed oysters.

• Traceback indicates that oysters harvested from Area 1642 in Apalachicola Bay, Fla., between March 21 and April 6, 2011, are associated with illness.

When outbreaks of foodborne illness are suspected, health types struggle with how much information to publicly provide and when. There are so many uncertainties, and every situation has its own specifics based on potential future exposure, lethality of the agent, and getting it wrong. There aren’t any guidelines, and every county, state and federal department seems to make it up with each outbreak.

What about the collateral damage?

The St. Petersburg Times reports this morning that two days after the Hernando County Health Department (that’s in Florida, north of Tampa) issued an alert that people had gotten sick after eating at an unidentified restaurant on U.S. 19 in Spring Hill, independent restaurant owners along the busy corridor began to feel the ripple effects of the announcement.

Nadia Gauthier, manager of The Restaurant, said Thursday that business dropped by nearly half of what she was expecting as word quickly spread through the community.

"People were definitely talking about it," Gauthier said from the eatery at 3438 Commercial Way. "It seemed like they were scared to eat in a restaurant."

In the following days, concerned diners flooded the Health Department and local media with calls. Most demanded the name of the suspect eatery, noting that by not identifying the place, it painted all Spring Hill restaurants with unfair suspicion.

C.P. Damon, owner of Nellie's Restaurant in Weeki Wachee, said he saw a 50 percent decline in business.

"It hurt us really bad," Damon said. "Our customers stopped coming because they thought they were going to get sick eating here."

Perhaps his worst day was St. Patrick's Day, when his staff had prepared corned beef and cabbage for what he expected would be a robust holiday crowd. By 3 p.m., Damon decided to send two cooks and other workers home.

On Wednesday, the Health Department confirmed that more than 100 people had been stricken with norovirus after dining at or coming in contact with someone who dined at Kally K's Steakery & Fishery, 3383 Commercial Way, Spring Hill.

But when the agency released its original alert on March 15, it declined to name the restaurant, citing its ongoing joint investigation with the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Damon thought that was bad policy.

"It became a guessing game that was based on a lot of rumors," Damon said. "No one wants to eat where they think they're going to get sick. And with no way of knowing, they just stopped coming."

In a statement, Health Department spokeswoman Ann-Gayl Ellis defended the agency on Thursday, saying, "In any event of this type, until the health department has confirmed clinical results that provide a credible link to the source, it will not issue specific information on the restaurant in question."

Does that apply to something like a listeria outbreak, with its 30 per cent kill rate? Doubtful.

Kally K's manager Christina Malo said her restaurant has suffered as well, and laments that so many people were affected by the norovirus.