Tampa

  • Sushi safety questioned in Tampa

    Posted: May 24th, 2012 - 3:42am by Doug Powell

    Restaurant violations are nothing new. The shocking bits of this story is that there are 100 sushi restaurants in the Tampa area alone; and that sushi is considered “healthy and nutritious.”

    The I-Team at ABC Action News reviewed the inspection reports of 100 sushi restaurants in the bay area over the last year and found serious critical violations that could make you or your family sick.

    That includes raw tuna at 61 degrees, raw shrimp and fish over cooked tempura, which is a cross contamination issue and restaurants that had to throw out food because they were at hazardous temperatures. We also look at one sushi restaurant that tops the list in critical violations.

    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    Bookmark and Share
    Restaurant Inspection  |  0 Comments
    food safety, restaurant, Sushi, tampa, violation
  • Lab results confirm norovirus in Florida restaurant outbreak

    Posted: March 23rd, 2011 - 8:09pm by Doug Powell

    Over 100 people who ate at an unnamed restaurant north of Tampa a couple of weeks ago have been confirmed to have been part of a norovirus outbreak.

    But now they’ve named the restaurant.

    (What are public disclosure procedures? When does public health have a responsibility to go public with information about an outbreak, especially if it will prevent additional people from barfing?)

    Hernando Today reports local health-types have confirmed norovirus in at least three of those 100 sickies, who dined at Kally K's Restaurant between March 6-11.

    Among the positive results was at least one of the employees of the restaurant.

    Uh-oh.

    The owner of Kally K's is complying with Health Department recommendations that no employees who tested positive for this virus will be involved in food handling or preparation until follow up tests are negative. The restaurant continues to cooperate in this ongoing investigation.
     

    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    Bookmark and Share
    Norovirus  |  0 Comments
    employee, florida, food safety, ill, Kally K's, norovirus, tampa
  • Roy Costa does Tampa home kitchen inspections – and here’ s the video

    Posted: March 22nd, 2011 - 8:15pm by Doug Powell

    The suave and sassy Roy Costa showed up on Tampa television last night, walking viewers through a couple of home kitchen food safety inspections, including the kitchen of ABC Action News Dirty Dining reporter, Wendy Ryan.

    (I can’t actually confirm the broadcast date, but the clip showed up on the web last night.)

    The story says that Gretchen Barnes is a busy new mom with twin 7-month-old boys, Beckett and Eli, and has much less time to do things like clean the kitchen.

    Gretchen was a trooper to allow former health inspector Roy Costa to come to her house and do a mock inspection on her kitchen.

    Right away, Roy found a critical violation: Eggs over five months old in her refrigerator. The package had a printed expiration date of September 17, 2010.

    Roy said one of the most contaminated areas of the kitchen is the sink drain, because of the disposal and waste spewing up from the bottom.

    Roy says it's a good idea to disinfect the sink drain once a week. So how do you do that?

    "Make about a 200-part-per-million dilution of this bleach. Because we know if you have the proper water to bleach, the activity of the chlorine that's in there is going to be a lot more effective," Roy explained.

    So in a bucket of room temperature water, less than a capful of clorox would be enough to create the right level of disinfectant.

    And Roy says sanitizing the baby's toys with that same diluted solution is a good idea.

    Sophie the giraffe, a previous favorite of our 2-year-old Sorenne, was somewhat dirty in the twins’ house, so Roy recommended a soap and water wash before sterilizing the twins' Sophie in the solution for at least 5 minutes. 

    Your rating: None (2 votes)
    Bookmark and Share
    Restaurant Inspection  |  0 Comments
    food safety, home, inspection, Roy Costa, tampa