Inspector couldn’t tell difference between employees’ and customers’ food at this Palmetto pizza chain

In the week after Hurricane Irma, state inspectors were only able to make it to five Manatee County restaurants. A follow-up is only needed for La Michoacana Natural for lacking a food manager certification, but the rest passed their inspections.

The eateries inspected in the previous week, between Sept. 5 and 7, weren’t as lucky.

At the Palmetto location of Little Caesars, which is at 573 10th St. E., the inspector couldn’t discern the employees’ personal food from that meant for the public.

“Observed opened package of cinnamon rolls on top shelf of walk in cooler,” read the report on the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s website.

The action was corrected on-site, but it was a repeat violation, according to the report. An employee’s half-empty bottle of Mountain Dew was also spotted in a cooler with food meant to be sold.

A dishwasher at O’Brick’s Irish Pub, located at 427 12th St. W., was again seen handling dirty dishes before picking up clean ones, a Sept. 5 inspection report read. Corrective action was taken, but an inspector will have to follow up.

An inspector doled out an administrative complaint to Beach Bistro for keeping refrigerated food at unsafe temperatures. The restaurant, located at 6600 N. Gulf Drive, was said to have kept food such as grits and blue tomato soup at levels slightly above the recommended 41 degree Fahrenheit standard.

Kites Corner, at 817 14th St. W., also had some food storage issues at its two Sept. 5 inspections. During the first, the inspector found raw chicken stored over shredded cheese; ready-to-eat chicken wings that had been prepared two days prior had not been marked with a date; and some refrigerated food had been held at temperatures slightly warmer than recommended.

All of these actions had been corrected on site. At the second inspection that day, the only issue the inspector took was that the restaurant had no certified food manager.

This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Inspector couldn’t tell difference between employees’ and customers’ food at this Palmetto pizza chain."