Beer, fruit, rice vulnerable to vermin next to open garbage at a Hialeah supermarket

A Friday visit to a Hialeah supermarket revealed bagged Goya rice, Stella Artois and water stored open to any bugs or rodents that might happen by, overflowing garbage and some food safety violations that state inspectors noted days earlier.

That’s why Friday looked an awful lot like Monday at Hialeah’s Price Choice Foodmarket, 1900 W. 60th St.

Monday, this Price Choice failed an inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture’s Wenndy Ayerdis and Francis Odio, who dropped a flurry of Stop Sale Orders on unsafe food and a Stop Use Order on a walk-in cooler.

According to state records, J Mary J Food Corp., run by president Osiris Diaz and secretary Juan Diaz, owns this Price Choice. Here are some of the problems Inspectors Ayerdis and Odio found there.

▪ No soap at the handwash sink next to the espresso machine in the food service area.

▪ “Ice buildup accumulated on unpackaged Venezuelan empanadas stored inside the freezer by the deli area.” A Stop Sale was dropped on the empanadas.

▪ The food service also had pasta salad, ham and cheese croissants and cheese breads that needed to be at 41 degrees or less measuring at 47, 67 and 70 degrees, respectively. Stop Sales on all. Basura.

▪ In the reach-in cooler near the entrance, arroz con leche, tres leches and vanilla custard got hit with Stop Sales for the same reason. Melon in the beverage and fruit cooler also was too warm.

▪ Back to the food service area, the hot holding unit needed to keep foods over 135 degrees. Instead, cheese cachapas, cheese tequenos, pan de bono, beef empanadas, cheese pastelitos, papa rellenas and ham croquetas all measured well under 135 degrees.

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▪ “Multiple open packages of ham and cheese were removed from their packaging and stored in direct contact with plastic shopping bags inside the deli display unit.” Plastic shopping bags aren’t food grade material. Stop Sales on the food.

▪ The food service’s “reach-in cold unit housing milk gallons, eggs, and sandwiches was found in disrepair with an ambient temperature between 42 and 51 degrees.” That’s a problem when the unit’s job is to keep food under 41 degrees.

▪ A fence doesn’t stop bugs, mice, rats, squirrels or anything else that might want to nibble, pee or poop on food products. So, the inspectors noted that outdoor storage area’s “pallets of dry goods and juices/water/drinks had no protection against the entry of insects and rodents.”

Friday, pallets of Goya Foods’ Camilla Extra Long Grain Enriched Rice sat on the grassy area outside the fence. Inside the fence, there was Stella Artois boxes and cases of bottled water.

▪ “Multiple flying insects landing on the tables and cold units in the meat department and produce area in the kitchen.”

▪ Perhaps that’s because the kitchen door “leading to outdoor storage area was open during the entire inspection with no protection against the entry of insects and rodents installed.”

Friday, it was still open to the storage area where boxes of bananas sat.

▪ “Kitchen and food service employees were not wearing hair restraints while engaged in open food handling.”

▪ In the kitchen, “cleaned trays were stacked on top of each other, wet-nested, allowing water to pool on tray rims on the drain board above the warewash sink.”

▪ “Excessively scored green cutting board stored on shelf near the produce processing area” in the kitchen.

▪ “A direct connection exists between the sewage system and the drain of the warewash sink.” So, if there’s a sewage backup, the warewash sink becomes a sewer sink.

▪ “The meat walk-in cooler housing raw meats and cheese was found in disrepair with an ambient temperature of 48 degrees.” Obviously, it can’t keep food under 41 degrees. That gets a Stop Use Order.

Stop Sale Orders: Unpackaged Venezuelan empanadas for ice buildup. Pasta salad, ham, cheese croissants, cheese breads, arroz con leche, tres leches and vanilla custard weren’t under 41 degrees. Cheese cachapas, cheese tequenos, pan de bono, beef empanadas, cheese pastelitos, papa rellenas and ham croquetas weren’t over 135 degrees. Ham and cheese touching non-food grade material.

Stop Use Orders: Meat walk-in cooler for being unable to keep food cool enough. The Stop Use was released by Inspector Simeon Carrero on Friday.