Food for Thought Report 5.30 - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

More than 40 kitchens were on the agenda for inspectors this week and that means a hearty helping of this week on Food for Thought.

If you work up an appetite while working on your golf game, or brushing up on your tennis skills, than you're in luck. This week we're going clubbing, "country" clubbing that is. That's because two local clubs are members of the Top Performing list.

We start at Hillcrest Country Club at 4011 North Boston where they're Top Performers three times over. The Club, the Main Kitchen and the Shack all receive perfect scores. 

The perfection continues over at Lubbock Country Club at 3416 Mesa. They also get a Top Performing certificate by bringing in zero critical violations.

Continuing with our Top Performers, a local chain hits a home run. Home Plate Diner at 5812 34th Street gets the game started this week with a Top Performance.

Smoothie King at 4210 82nd Street showcases their smooth operation, also with zero critical violations.

Bonus Burgers at 2312 50th Street is also a Top Performer with a perfect score.

There's nothing fishy at Cap N' Catfish at 101 East Main in New Deal, they're also a Food for Thought top performer.

Moving on to this week's Low Performers, we start with Dairy Queen at 8103 Indiana. That's where inspectors found five critical violations. Violations including:

• Cold food being held at improper temperatures. Milk was found at 47 degrees and grated cheese was found at 56 degrees. Cold foods must be kept between 41 and 45 degrees or colder.
• Employees were found not adequately washing their hands between job duties.
• Limes were not found in sound condition.
• Employees were not found handling ready to eat foods properly. Hand sanitizers, gloves, or utensils must be used to handle food products.
• Toxic items were not properly stored. A spray bottle containing a toxic substance was found stored on an ice machine.

Other violations included soiled food equipment, a reach in freezer with a soiled interior, improper arrangement in a reach in freezer, a walk in freezer with heavy ice build up, improper storage of wiping cloths, improper lighting in cooling units and improper storage of an ice scoop.

NewsChannel 11 spoke with Dairy Queen's local corporate office. A representative told us all critical violations have been corrected. The report states that as well.

Our next low performer is Jason's Deli at 4001 South Loop 289. Inspectors found six critical violations.

• Cold foods being held at improper temperatures. Turkey was found at 49 degrees, ham was found at 50 degrees. Cold foods must be kept at between 41 and 45 degrees or colder.
• There was improper heating of potentially hazardous food. Chicken was found at 111 degrees.
• Employees were not washing their hands before putting on gloves and they were not changing gloves in between job duties.
• There was an improper and un maintained date marking system. Lunch meat was found with no date mark, soups were found with an improper date mark and other products were also found with expired date marks.
• A hand sink in the food prep area did not have an accessible soap dispenser.
• Food contact surfaces were not maintained or in good repair or clean condition.l Food equipment was soiled and chipped and slicers were heavily soiled.

Other violations included a heavily soiled door to a walk in, heavily soiled storage shelves for food equipment, aprons stored with food equipment and heavily soiled walls in the dish room.

The general manager at Jason's Deli told us the restaurant has been a Top Performer in the past, and they just hit a bump in the road. He said all violations have been corrected, and that customers and health codes are their number one priority. He also said new employees have been further trained to make sure this doesn't happen again. The inspection report says all critical violations were corrected on site