By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
After repeated unclean conditions and disregard of safe food handling practices, two restaurants in Perrysburg had their licenses suspended Thursday evening by the Wood County Board of Health.
Yum Yummy at 10677 Fremont Pike, and Nedley’s Ice Cream and Coffee Cafe at 200 E. South Boundary St., have both been cited for several critical and non-critical violations in recent months.
The decision to close the restaurants was the last resort, according to Lana Glore, director of environmental services at the health department. It is a step the health board has not used since 2014, she said.
The sanitarians conduct standard inspections at all food service establishments in the county. If there are significant problems, they conduct follow-up inspections. With each visit, the sanitarians instruct the restaurant staff on proper food safety procedures.
If the problems persist, the business owners are brought in for a pre-administrative meeting, and an agreement is made between the health department and the owners on the steps that must be taken to avoid legal action, Glore said.
“It is a lengthy process with numerous educational steps,” she said.
If the food establishments don’t comply with the agreement, then an administrative hearing is held.
“We try to avoid this,” Glore said. “We try to educate them through the process.”
Health Board President Tom Milbrodt thanked the board members for taking the rare but necessary action Thursday evening to suspend the licenses.
“This is something we haven’t done since I’ve been on the board,” Milbrodt said. “We take this very seriously. Our duty is to see to the health of the county.”
Yum Yummy was suspended for 14 days, while Nedley’s Ice Cream and Coffee Cafe was suspended for seven days.
Glore told the board the establishments have had large numbers of critical violations, spanning years.
Yum Yummy had a standard inspection in July of 2022, during which three critical and 12 non-critical violations were noted. Upon another inspection in December 2022, health department staff found four critical and six non-critical. During a follow up in January 2023, staff noted eight critical and 16 non-critical violations.
Nedley’s Ice Cream and Coffee Cafe has had a string of violations over the past year. In February 2022, the shop had seven critical and seven non-critical. A few months later, in July 2022, inspectors noted seven critical and nine non-critical. Two follow up visits in July found four critical and nine non-critical, then three critical and nine non-critical. A standard inspection in December 2022 found five critical and nine non-critical violations.
The latest critical violations at Yum Yummy include:
- Written procedures and plans are not maintained and implemented. Owners have not followed the signed agreement in regard to cooling and temperature logs, cleaning schedule and removal of excessive personal items and unused equipment.
- Food not properly protected from contamination by separation, packaging, and segregation. Observed dirty plate with stuck-on food debris being used as cover for cooling rice and moisture packets inside prep top cooler near open food.
- Equipment food-contact surfaces or utensils are unclean. Observed heavy black build up on dish machine racks used to hold food contact utensils for mechanical washing and in buckets used for manual warewashing.
- Food equipment surfaces not cleaned at required frequency. Sanitizer not observed set up at time of inspection. All in use utensils shall be washed, rinsed and sanitized every 4 hours to prevent pathogen growth.
- Chlorine sanitizing solution at incorrect temperature and/or concentration.
- Ready-to-eat, time/temperature controlled for safety food not properly discarded when required. Observed stock pot of food and dairy container in walk in cooler not properly discarded after expiration. Black build up observed on products.
- Refrigerated, ready-to-eat, time/temperature controlled for safety foods not properly date marked. Observed sauces in walk in cooler and soup in prep top cooler not properly date marked.
- Working containers of poisonous or toxic materials not properly labeled. Observed chlorine bleach being held in a manufacturer’s hand sanitizer container and without a label.
Following are the latest critical violations identified at Nedley’s:
- Person in charge unable to demonstrate knowledge of cleaning and sanitizing. Sanitizer in the three-compartment sink was from the previous day.
- Employees are not informed in a verifiable manner of their responsibility to report information about their health.
- Utensils and food-contact surfaces of equipment not sanitized at the required frequency. Employee stated the soft serve unit is not sanitized at the required frequency. Unit is to be sanitized every 24 hours to prevent pathogen growth.
- Equipment food-contact surfaces or utensils are unclean. Observed build up on nozzles of pop machine and stuck on build up on nozzle of soft serve unit and pumps of syrups.
- Refrigerated, ready-to-eat, time-temperature controlled for safety foods not properly date marked. Whole milk in the counter cooler had no date mark.
