Food for Thought Report 10.13 - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

Four elementary schools rule Food for Thought. McWhorter, Tubbs, Williams and Wolffarth Elementaries are all top performers with zero critical violations on their last health inspections. Wheelock Elementary received just one critical violation for soiled food contact surfaces. Aramark manages all of LISD's school cafeteria's. They tell NewsChannel 11, "Since it is our priority to provide for the health and safety of LISD students and staff, we are pleased about the perfect scores earned this week. The violation at the remaining campus was corrected immediately and employees were reminded of proper sanitation practices."

Food for Thought 10.13 Here is a complete list of the restaurants and their violations for the week ending on 10/13/05.

Don't forget it is national school lunch week this week and Aramark was proud to share the pictures to right showing a new concept in school lunch. At Estacado, Monterey and Coronado High Schools, the cafeterias are transformed into U.B.U. lounges designed to make dining fun. The concept adds new, creative recipes and stations such as 'Burritoville', a pizzaria and Blue Bell dip station. Students at the schools are more likely to stay on campus to eat. Lubbock High School will be renovated over the winter break. They'll also use the U.B.U. lounge system.

DQ - it's what we like about Food for Thought! The Dairy Queen location in the 7800 block of Slide is one of two top performers with zero critical violations.

America's drive in drives off with our second perfect score. The Sonic at 4611 34th Street also had no critical violations.

There are just as many low performers as top performers this week... starting with the Fox & Hound English Pub and Grill located at 4210 82nd Street. The Fox and Hound had four critical violations.

• Sliced turkey in a walk-in cooler was found at 50 degrees. Cold foods must be 45 degrees or cooler.
• Uncovered, personal drinks were found on a food prep table.
• Various foods had expired date marks.
• A hand washing sink at the bar was out of soap.

All four critical violations were corrected on site. A manager at the Fox and Hound had no further comment.

Zoo-kini's at 4414 82nd Street is also a low performer because of their six critical violations. Zoo-kini's Director of Operations, Mark Lindsey, welcomed NewsChannel 11 inside his restaurant to address the violations which were all corrected on site.

• First: three food items were in unsound condition: a rotten onion was stored with other onions, Lindsey says, "We have since put in place where daily that onion bin in changed out." Dented cans were stored with other canned items, Lindsey says, "Whenever they find a dented can, we put it in a separate location."
• Gnats were found on melons on the buffet, Lindsey says, "We constantly change them out and make sure they're fresh every two hours."
• Zoo-kini's received another violation for a box of zucchini stored in a pan of cooked rice. Lindsey explains, "Since then we have made areas for proper cooling away from produce."
• Sliced ham, turkey and cooked rice were not date marked.
• Bottles containing an unknown solution were not labeled.
• Food contact surfaces were soiled. Lindsey says, "We called out our dishwasher company and they assured everything is fine. We trained some of our dish personnel."

Mark says he and his employees learned from their last inspection and look forward to a follow-up inspection with the health department.