By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The Wood County Board of Health took the unusual action Thursday evening of authorizing legal action against a restaurant.
Following an executive session, the board voted to authorize the Wood County Prosecutor’s Office to initiate criminal and injunctive action against Yum Yummy, a restaurant at 10677 Fremont Pike in Perrysburg.
The legal action is being sought because the restaurant reportedly continued operating after having its license revoked. The prosecutor’s office was asked to enforce the license revocation, according to Beth Peery, public health information and education manager with the Wood County Health Department.
Yum Yummy, owned by Zhong Chen, has a history of violations identified during inspections by health department sanitarians.
In April, after repeated unclean conditions and disregard of safe food handling practices, the restaurant had its license suspended for 14 days by the Wood County Board of Health. During a follow up inspection, multiple critical violations were identified, so an administrative hearing was held at the health department.
The board voted in August to revoke the license for Yum Yummy.
However, when a complaint was filed to the health department by a member of the public, it was discovered Yum Yummy was continuing to serve food, Peery said.
That led to the board’s action Thursday evening to take legal action against the establishment.
The restaurant has had large numbers of critical violations, spanning years.
In April, Lana Glore, director of environmental services at the health department, explained the decision to close the restaurant was the last resort.
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 after the license suspension in April. “We try to educate them through the process.”
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.
Earlier this year, the critical violations at Yum Yummy included:
- 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.
The follow up inspection found four critical violations:
- Written procedures and plans are not maintained and implemented. Person in charge did not have temperature or cooling logs available at time of inspection, which is required.
- Food employee(s) did not wash hands when required. Observed person in charge handling raw chicken with bare hands and did not properly wash hands with soap at hand sink before other duties. Hand washing must be performed when changing tasks to prevent cross contamination.
- Food equipment surfaces not cleaned at required frequency. Sanitizer was not observed at time of inspection, during cutting of raw chicken. Sanitizer must be available when in operation to wipe down food contact surfaces before and after use to prevent cross contamination.
- No air gap or approved backflow prevention device on the plumbing system. Observed plumbing from prep sink directly in drain and not properly air gapped. All food sinks must be properly air gapped to prevent possible contamination of sewage.
