Meat kept 9 days past garbage time among a Presidente Supermarket’s inspection problems

Food dangerously old, food dangerously not cold and equipment encrusted with old food were among the pages of problems state inspectors found at a Presidente Supermarket.

When Florida Department of Agriculture inspectors dropped by the West Kendall Presidente at 14778 SW 56th St. last week, they found several targets for Stop Sale Orders. Ag Department inspectors can’t close a place, but they can put Stop Sales on food and Stop Use Orders on areas and equipment.

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Here are just some of the violations seen by Inspectors James Zheng and Julio Azpura.

In the food service area, food employees did not wash their hands or change gloves after touching money and before handling food and clean utensils.

Then again, the handwash sink in that area “is not located in a way that allowed employees to use it conveniently. It was installed in a tight space and below the counter, requiring employees to kneel and making it impractical to use.”

Gloves were used in the bakery area, but they were “cloth gloves to handle fresh baked Cuban bread.” Stop Sale on the Cuban breads, but at least customers know the bread was freshly baked.

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“Multiple food items held for credit” in the meat, deli, produce departments were “not segregated from wholesome food.”

A meat department walk-in cooler had “raw pork shoulders stored in direct contact with a metal shopping retail cart.” Shopping carts aren’t food-grade containers. The shoulders were taken out of the cart and “the cart was taken out of service.”

“There was old food residue on the back of the upper wheel and the blade scrapers of both band saws” in the meat department. “Additionally, accumulated grease was observed on the removable part of the meat grinder disk plate.”

“Observed multiple baked bread holding metal cabinets with accumulated dirt, dust and food residue” in the bakery area.

In the produce area, “a heated plastic film food-wrapping table machine had accumulated food residue.”

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Now to the monsoon of Stop Sales.

A package of Mr. Tango Cooked Veal roll Matambre was opened on April 16. It should have been tossed at the end of the day on April 22. It was still in the walk-in cooler on May 1. Stop Sale.

The meat department had a pot with cooked black beans, pork tamales and cook beef chunks that had been cooked more than 24 hours before, but nobody knew how much longer. Stop Sale.

In the deli area, “multiple packages of deli meats (ham, turkey, mortadella, sweet ham) were not clearly marked and we were unable to determine the day it was first opened or the day by which the food should be discarded.” Stop Sale.

The backroom’s dairy walk-in cooler door gasket was “in disrepair.” The store wound up throwing out 900 gallons of milk, chocolate milk and lactose-free milk stored in the walk-in because they measured 45 to 48 degrees and proper food safety says they need to be 41 degrees or under. Stop Sale.

“Multiple packages of watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe cut this morning and placed in the retail open produce cooler measured between 47 and 53 degrees and did not achieve 41 degrees after more than four hours of cooling.” Stop Sales.

On the produce area’s walk-in cooler, “the metal door’s inside surface in disrepair and missing metal parts in some spots.”

The same fate found boiled pork chunks, pork tamales, pork belly and black beans in the meat department’s walk-in cooler. All but the pork belly were in the aforementioned pot that had been there more than a day, so Stop Sale on the pork belly.

Still in the meat department, “multiple packages of ham spread made in house” measured 42 and 43 degrees and “various deli ham pieces” measured 42 to 46 degrees.

“At the hot counter, where food needed to be kept at 135 degrees or above, all of the following were at least 19 degrees: ham croquetas, cheese croquetas, cod croquetas, chorizo croquetas, cheese pastelitos, guava and cheese empanadas, beef stuffed potatoes, pan de bono, cheese tequenos and fried chicken wings.

No surprise that the hot display case was ruled in disrepair and managers stopped using it before the inspectors hit it with a Stop Use Order.

“There are multiple missing and water-damaged ceiling tiles in several areas including the deli department, dry storage, bakery ovens, and retail spaces.”

You just can’t put wet wiping cloths in use on food prep tables when you’re not using them. They’re supposed to be in sanitizer solution.

The bakery folks used and reused “single-use baking paper multiple days to line trays” during the baking process.

Those foam meat trays carrying ground beef, chicken, pork chops come in packing to protect them from contamination and passing it on to your food. But “the foam meat trays stored on a shelving unit next to the walk-in cooler are not kept in the original protective package.”

More from the meat department’s walk-in cooler: “no floor drains where water cleaning method are used.”

The inspectors also noted “water accumulation in holes and uneven surfaces of the floor inside both walk-in coolers.”