Mall restaurant closes after roaches are discovered. More checks planned at Kennewick food court

Bruchi’s CheeseSteaks and Subs at the Columbia Center mall in Kennewick is closing at the request of the Benton Franklin Health District to address a cockroach infestation.

The Benton Franklin Health District sent two inspectors to the mall’s food court on Monday after a picture of a roach was posted on social media.

The post from early Sunday morning had been shared more than 1,400 times by noon Monday.

A young mother said she was at the mall’s food court to buy a slice of pie for her child when she saw the cockroach at a display case and snapped some photos.

On Monday, health district employees did inspections of four food establishments at the mall, finding some dead cockroaches at three and active cockroaches in the fourth, Bruchi’s.

Cockroaches are nocturnal and active cockroaches during the day may indicate a potentially heavy infestation, according to the Centers for Disease Control

Inspectors plan to return Tuesday to check more of the mall eateries.

Bruchi’s plans cleaning

The three restaurants where some dead cockroaches were seen appear to have been doing a good job with cleaning, said Lars Richins, the health district’s food safety program supervisor.

All had regular pest control service, he said.

But Bruchi’s will need to do some heavy cleaning during its voluntary closure, Richins said. Cleaning and sanitizing floors, walls, ceilings and under equipment can help break the lifecycle of the insects.

The owner of the Bruchi’s outlet at the mall has agreed to discard any exposed food.

Health district officials will meet with Bruchi’s and its pest control company on Wednesday to continue to work on a cleanup and prevention plan.

They also will be meeting with mall management to come up with long-term plans, Richins said.

He expects district inspectors to return to the mall food court several times.

Columbia Center mall is working with its tenant, who has contacted their pest control service, said mall manager Barbara Johnson on Monday morning before the inspections were done.

Report concerns to health district

The health district typically does inspections of food service establishments such as those at the mall twice a year, Richins said.

Richins was not immediately aware of any pest problems, one of the things inspectors check for, in inspections in recent years at the mall, he said.

But there are cockroaches in the Tri-Cities, he said.

“I don’t think we will ever get rid of them entirely,” he said.

Typically if there is evidence of cockroaches at a food establishment, the inspector will next look for signs of a breeding population, which would increase concerns. Finding both adult and juvenile cockroaches could indicate a breeding population.

When spraying is done for pest control, cockroaches will not die immediately, he said.

The health district relies on the public to report issues at restaurants between their regular inspections. Issues can be reported at bit.ly/reportBF under “Food Safety.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Mall restaurant closes after roaches are discovered. More checks planned at Kennewick food court."