Food for Thought Report 10.5 - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

Congratulations to this week's top performers: Cold Stone Creamery at 2421 Broadway, The Koffee Kup at 2912 Slide Road and Williams Elementary School at 4812 58th Street.

Food for Thought 10.5 Here is a complete list of the restaurants and their violations for the week ending on 10/5/06.

Now to the four schools that need a review.

Coronado High School at 3307 Vicksburg had one violation.

• Ice in a freezer was dripping onto food, and ice inside the ice machine was touching a rusted bolt.

Wolffarth Elementary School at 3202 Erskine Avenue had two critical violations.

• A dented can was found.
• There was not a test kit to test the amount of sanitizer in cleaning solution. 

Westwind Elementary at 6401 43rd Street had two critical violations.

• Bologna was found with an expired date mark. 
• The ice machine was soiled and had mold in it.

Northridge Elementary School at 6302 11st Street had three critical violations.

• Cheese was found with an expired date mark.
• A bleach sanitizer solution was found to be at a toxic concentration.
• Food contact surfaces were found soiled and not in good repair - including: a chipped slicer blade, a soiled can opener and soiled pans on a clean rack.

All school violations have been corrected.

Now on to this week's low performing restaurants.

Texas Cafe and Bar at 3604 50th Street had five critical violations.

• An employee's drink was not properly stored.
• Food was found with an expired date.
• A paper towel machine was not dispensing properly.
• There were an extreme number of flies throughout the kitchen.
• Equipment and utensils were found soiled.

Management says, "Most violations were corrected during the inspection. Those that weren't, were corrected within 24 hours. Everything is up to par as far as what the inspectors and customers expect."

Pizza Hut at 5718 4th Street was cited for five critical violations.

• An open drink was found in a cooler.
• Employees were not washing hands between job duties. The report states they were busing tables and then handling clean dishes.
• Dented cans were found.
• An open container of potato salad was found in a cooler without a date mark.
• Multiple food contact surfaces were soiled - including: plastic spatulas, plates, trays, utensil bins, utensils and moldy soda nozzles.

Management at Pizza Hut says they have recently gone through a change in management. They say they have, "A great track record with the Lubbock Health Department and Food for Thought." They added, "We look forward to their next inspection so we can get this location where we should be - as a top performer." The report shows all violations were corrected at the time of the inspection.

Town and Country at 8112 Ave. H had five critical violations.

• Potentially hazardous food products were found at 126 degrees. Hot foods must be at least 140 degrees.
• An employee was not properly washing hands between job duties.
• An employee was handling hamburger buns with soiled gloves.
• Thermometers were not properly calibrated.
• Food contact surfaces were soiled.

The assistant manager at Town and Country had "no comment." The report shows all violations were corrected at the time of the inspection.

And finally, Pauline Childers, the manager at Josie's at 2332 19th Street invited us inside their kitchen to explain their five violations.

• Cold foods were found between 46-and-49 degrees. They must be 41 degrees or colder.

"Everything (in the lower cooler) was on temperature. It's just the surface that was off temperature because of the heat that it was exposed to. We have now started using these freezer pans they are like a thermal pan you keep in the freezer to keep everything on temperature," Childers said. 

• Potatoes were between 119-121 degrees. Hot foods must be 140 degrees or hotter.

"It was a communication error. He asked one of my Spanish speaking only cooks if she was about to use the potato. Those potatoes were actually cooling down. We have two hours to get those to temperature. He understood she was fixing to use them," Childers said. 

• An employee touched a non-food surface with gloved hands while preparing food and did not wash hands or change gloves.

"It's like if (the employee) is making a bacon and egg burrito over here and she grabs that handle she's suppose to wash her hands before she rolls the burrito. I mean it's impossible. We have people making pizza dough, that are throwing pizza up in the air with their bare hands and that's not a violation yet grabbing cheese and putting over here it is. It's kind of impossible to do," Childers said. 

• Interior of the microwave was soiled.

"They're cleaned out after every shift. He came in kind of at a transition time and they were in the middle of cleaning everything," Childers said.

• A spray can of cleaner was on a counter.

"We keep a clean kitchen, we keep a safe environment and we want all of our customers to be assured of that. Our health inspectors are frequent customers of ours, so they know what's back here and they know we have a clean kitchen," Childers said.

Childers said all violations have been corrected.