Dirty hands, safety hazards. 8 Tri-Cities restaurants fail food inspections
The Benton Franklin Health District gave eight failing grades for food safety inspections at restaurants and other establishments selling food in the Tri-Cities area from March 14-20.
The health district’s food safety team gave passing marks on 51 inspections, with 29 of those earning perfect scores.
In the district’s routine inspections, businesses or organizations that receive at least 35 points for the more serious red violations are required to have additional inspections and must meet a tougher standard on those.
To pass follow-up inspections, they must have fewer than 25 red points and fewer than 10 repeat red points for previous issues.
Scores of 85 or more red points result in establishments remaining on probation until they pass two follow-up inspections, the first one within 72 hours.
Red violations are those most likely to cause food-borne illnesses, such as not keeping hot food hot enough or cold food cold enough, inadequate handwashing, bare-hand contact with foods or refrigerating meat in a way that could contaminate other food.
Blue violations are low risk factors related to the cleanliness and physical condition of an establishment.
No notice is given before the inspections.
Businesses may have separate inspections of business lines with different health safety risks, such as grocery sales and a deli that prepares food, with one business line passing and another failing.
Information about passed and failed inspections includes only licensed establishments. The health district also responds to complaints of unlicensed pop-up food vendors in Benton and Franklin counties.
To see more inspection results or details of the past week’s inspections, go to inspections.myhealthdepartment.com/bfhd.
For questions or complaints about food safety in Benton or Franklin counties, email contactusfoodsafety@BFHD.WA.GOV.
Food customers may take a survey at bit.ly/FoodSafetyConsumerSurvey, and owners and employees of food establishments may take a survey at bit.ly/FoodSafetyIndustrySurvey.
Failed inspections
Birrieria El Sazon, 3115 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick, Routine March 17 (125 Red, 0 Blue)
Notes: Lack of adequate managerial control; food worker cards not 100%; hands not washed as required (food worker washed hands for only 5-7 seconds); inadequate handwashing facilities (soap dispenser not functioning properly and worker washed hands in food preparation sink); lack of accurate food thermometer; inadequate consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods; lack of conformance with approved procedures; improper cooling procedures (rack with containers of cooling stew left in hallway with no temperature control); hot holding temperatures <135°F (rice on hot holding table as cool as 120°); cold holding temperatures >45°F (two pans of cooked and cooled salsas and three containers of shredded cheese as warm as 52°).
Cardamom Indian Grill & Bar, 1312 Lee Blvd., Richland, Follow-up March 20 (30 Red, 3 Blue)
Notes: Lack of adequate managerial control; room temperature storage (cut cabbage).
Juniors Tacos, 530 W. Court St., Pasco, Routine March 19 (65 Red, 0 Blue)
Notes: Lack of adequate managerial control; hands not washed as required (worker went from grabbing trash can to handling food without washing hands; worker washed hands with gloves on); inadequate handwashing facilities.
Mexico Lindo & Que Rico Corp., 1819 W. Court St., Pasco, Routine March 18 (55 Red, 5 Blue)
Notes: Lack of adequate managerial control; hot holding temperatures <135°F (birria in hot holding as cool as 110°); hands not washed as required (employee handled raw meat without putting on gloves and employee did not wash hands before putting on gloves).
Saap Lao Thai Kitchen, 4525 Road 68, Pasco, Follow-up March 18 (80 Red, 5 Blue)
Notes: Lack of adequate managerial control; bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food (basil leaves); improper cooling procedures (red curry sauce); room temperature storage.
Subway, 104 W. Washington St., Kennewick, Routine March 16 (35 Red, 0 Blue)
Notes: Hot holding temperatures <135°F (meatballs as cool as 120°); cold holding temperatures >45°F (cut lettuce, cut tomatoes, spinach and pan of deli meats as warm as 51°).
Tacos 24 Hrs, 528 S. Ely St., Kennewick, Routine March 20 (80 Red, 0 Blue)
Notes: Lack of adequate managerial control; improper cooling procedures; hot holding temperatures of 130°-134°F (carne asada on hot holding table not at 135°); cold holding temperatures >45°F (multiple foods too warm); hands not washed as required and inadequate handwashing facilities (water not hot enough at any sink).
Wendy’s, 2311 W. Court St., Pasco, Routine March 17 (50 Red, 0 Blue)
Notes: Improper cooling procedures; bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods (employee touched fries as they were put inside to-go bag).
Passed inspections
Amon Creek Elementary School, 18 Center Parkway, Richland, Routine March 18 (10 Red, 0 Blue)
The Amethyst Creamery, 700 George Washington Way, Richland, Routine March 19 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Bella Italia, 7000 W. Okanogan Place, Kennewick, Follow-up March 14 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Bombshelter/Up & Atom, 930 Long Ave., Richland, Routine March 19 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Brookdale Meadow Springs, 770 Gage Blvd., Richland, Routine March 20 (25 Red, 0 Blue)
Casa Mia, 607 George Washington Way, Richland, Follow-up March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
CBHA Coffee Bar, 7405 Three Rivers Drive, Pasco, Routine March 20 (20 Red, 0 Blue)
Chef Joe’s BBQ (Demo), 9116 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley, Routine March 14 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Con Sabor A Mexico, 1308 Lee Blvd., Richland, Routine March 20 (15 Red, 5 Blue)
Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive, Richland, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 5 Blue)
Domino’s, 101 S. Washington St., Kennewick, Routine March 16 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
El Habanero Mexican Taqueria, 1803 W. Court St., Pasco, Routine March 17 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Fuerza Elementary School, 6011 W. 10th Place, Kennewick, Routine March 18 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Golden Roll, 6418 W. Skagit Ave., Kennewick, Routine March 19 (30 Red, 5 Blue) (Hazard analysis of critical control points 10 Red, 0 Blue)
Golden Taco, 1335 Lee Blvd., Richland, Routine March 19 (15 Red, 0 Blue)
Holiday Inn, 802 George Washington Way, Richland, Routine March 20 (15 Red, 5 Blue)
Hubby’s Pizza, 346 W. Columbia Drive, Kennewick, Routine March 16 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
IHop, 5015 Road 68, Pasco, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Imperial Bakery, 1515 Wright Ave., Richland, Routine March 16 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Jocho’s Tacos, 510 W. Lewis St., Pasco, Routine March 19 (25 Red, 0 Blue)
KFC/A&W, 2210 W. Court St., Pasco, Routine March 17 (30 Red, 0 Blue)
Lewis & Clark Elementary School, 415 Jadwin Ave., Richland, Routine March 19 (0 Red, 5 Blue)
Lil Firehouse Coffee, 895 Stevens Drive, Richland, Routine March 16 (0 Red, 3 Blue)
Marcus Whitman Elementary School, 1704 Gray St., Richland, Routine March 19 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Mid-Columbia Partnership (Kennewick School District), 5980 W. 12th Ave., Kennewick, Routine March 18 (0 Red, 0 Blue) (VM 0 Red, 0 Blue)
Pacific Pasta & Grill, 603 Goethals Drive, Richland, Routine March 19 (5 Red, 0 Blue)
Richland High School, 930 Long Ave., Richland, Routine March 19 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Rill Foods, 11442 N. Thorp Highway, Thorp, Routine March 20 (10 Red, 0 Blue)
Safeway (Produce), 690 Gage Blvd., Richland, Follow-up March 16 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Starbuck’s, 5818 Road 68, Pasco, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Subway, 93 Gage Blvd., Richland, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Sunset View Elementary School, 711 Center Parkway, Kennewick, Routine March 18 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Taco Bell, 2404 W. Court St., Pasco, Routine March 17 (10 Red, 0 Blue)
Tacos El Jefe (Mobile), 1424 N. 4th Ave., Pasco, Routine March 19 (25 Red, 0 Blue)
Town Mart, 104 S. Washington St., Kennewick, Routine March 16 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Chapala Express, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 14 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Dog Haus Biergarten, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 14 (10 Red, 5 Blue)
Toyota Center/Funky Chicken, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 14 (10 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Great Grabs, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 14 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Kona, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 14 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Mac Daddy, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Main kitchen (buffet and bar), 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Snack Shack, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 20 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Toyota Center/Taco City, 7016 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, Routine March 14 (5 Red, 5 Blue)
Vista Elementary School, 1701 N. Young St., Kennewick, Routine March 18 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
The Wild Taco, 72 Wellsian Way, Richland, Follow-up March 19 (0 Red, 0 Blue)
Zip’s, 1756 Fowler St., Richland, Follow-up March 16 (0 Red, 0 Blue)