Another restaurant closed; others get red-stripe status
Published Saturday March 21st, 2009
Another Fredericton-area food establishment has had its licence revoked, while two others have been hit with red-striped warnings, indicating they've failed in major areas of the government's inspection report.
The Golden Mile Roadhouse on Route 101 in New Maryland failed its inspection Thursday, and its licence was yanked by the provincial Health Department.
Chez Riz on Queen Street was closed Tuesday after a health inspector wrote up three pages of violations on everything from food-handling practices to cleanliness of the premises and restaurant equipment.
The restaurant reopened Friday.
Health Department spokeswoman Meghan Cumby said for a restaurant to regain its licence, it has to meet the green standard - the highest score available to a food service establishment - upon reinspection.
The province has a colour-based scoring system.
Yellow indicates a restaurant has a mix of minor and major problems. A striped-red warning signals major or critical failings, while a solid-red signals a licence has been revoked.
"I've called my maintenance man right away. After 10 years of working day and night, I guess I neglected the basic cleanups. It won't happen again," said Golden Mile owner Mon Hong. "It's going to take at least three days to do a lot of repairs."
He said he hopes to have his reinspection done at the first of next week.
The health inspector cited the Golden Mile Roadhouse for, among other things, fridge cleaning issues, improper storage of dry noodles and failure to keep cooked chicken balls at the property temperature until served.
"Staff unaware of proper temperature holding of potentially dangerous foods," the inspector wrote of one violation marked critical.
"No handwashing observed during inspection" was another major violation.
The restaurant was cited for not cleaning the walk-in cooler, fridge racks and defrosting.
The inspector said a health policy has to be posted for staff, along with handwashing rules.
Food in a walk-in cooler wasn't stored at the proper temperature and all food had to be discarded, said another section of the five-page report.
The inspection report called for repairs to the ceiling, floor tiles and cleaning.
"All food equipment needs to be thoroughly cleaned.... Wooden cutting boards not being cleaned, scraped and sanitized properly," states the report.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel received a red-striped warning after it racked up three major and one critical violation after a restaurant inspector visited this week.
Its green status was restored Friday after a reinspection.
Unlike the other restaurants, however, the province investigated the hotel's kitchen after it received a complaint.
"Everything has been rectified. It's been all cleared up," said hotel manager Walther Lauffer.
"There have been some changes to the inspection procedures. We're certainly not immune to it, and we shouldn't be. We had to correct a couple of issues, which was done immediately. We certainly haven't had any issues whatsoever since we've been opened, and certainly the commitment is there for the safety of our guests and staff for that matter."
The hotel's kitchen was cited a failure to store food products 15 centimetres off the floor, some minor cleaning issues and for pest control.
"Floors must be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition where food is stored, prepared and served," stated the inspection report.
"There shall be no signs of insects or rodents," it added.
In Hoyt, Mama's Diner was cited for storing raw fish above other food items, failing to remove clutter, having a malfunctioning toilet in the staff washroom and not having self-closing doors.
Another citation was for not ensuring personal items were stored in a staff area, not submitting a water sample with bacterial check as part of a regular sampling plan and not having shatterproof light covers in the preparation area.
Black's Restaurant in Harvey Station was also red-flagged in late February for a number of shortcomings but has since returned to green status.
Another dozen local restaurants were also written up with yellow warnings in late February and early March, but mainly on technical points such as not having a second, backup thermostat on fridges, freezers or coolers and for not keeping temperature logs twice daily and for not having chemical sanitizer test strips available.
Mark Taylor, the owner of a local media consulting company, said he's preparing a workshop in April with a local microbiology lab to help restaurant owners who are telling him they aren't getting enough training from the province.
"We're doing this course because we are hearing back from restaurant owners who say they aren't getting enough education or information from the province," said Taylor, who runs Delora Media.
"There are different levels of training you can receive and New Brunswick isn't the same as in other parts of Canada.
"There's different levels of food handler training depending on where you are."
Restaurant owners are looking for practical advice to better protect themselves and their customers, he said.
Information on restaurant inspections can be found at the provincial Health Department website at www.gnb.ca by clicking on the food inspection icon.
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If that turns your stomach, stop reading. There are still kitchens in this city where you wouldn't want to eat what comes back to your table after you've sent it back to the kitchen.
A number of restaurants still pay minimum wage, give virtually no breaks, and work their staff like dogs. Do you really think that these people care about customers? Some of them are spiteful enough to do things that would cause a restaurant to fail an inspection.