What's wrong with this picture? 1.22

These are actual photographs from different inspections in our county. Can you see what the problems are?

1. ↓ That looks like a mop sink with chemical dispensing tubes. What else do you see?

2. ↓ Precooked meats at room temperature. How would this be safe, if ever?

3. ↓ Two issues here.

4. ↓ A classic problem. Can you identify it?

Answers:

Photo #1 - In the mop sink, frozen shrimp is being defrosted. This is some very risky business with chemical tubes in the sink and chemicals stored above the food. With this set-up, it is likely that if someone accessed the chemicals while defrosting the food, it would become contaminated. All food must be defrosted or prepped in a food prep sink or a basin in the 3-compartment sink that has been washed, rinsed, and sanitized before use.

Photo #2 - I hope this one made you think a bit. Most of us would likely look at this and say 'No way!'. But... it could be safe if it were on a 4 hour time as a control for public health agreement. You've seen many photos with that before, with the hollandaise and breakfast items. To meet the Oregon Food Sanitation Rules and do this safely, the meat would need to have a timestamp for when it was removed from temperature control (whatever they cooked it in) and discarded after 4 hours. Here's a downloadable link to the form and the code details.

Photo #3 - There are a couple of things that jump out here. The first thing for me was the vacuum sealing in a food saver bag used by non-commercial machines. The second was that there is no information about the producer of this product (other than the chef’s name which I blacked out). Thirdly, if the producing facility did not have a variance for vacuum sealing, then this product is required to have a date and time stamp as it cannot exceed 48 hours in a sealed bag without an approved variance. Upon checking, they did not have an approved variance from any Oregon governing agency. This product was cited as coming from an unapproved source and required discarding or removal from the facility at inspection. There are strict and clear rules regarding vacuum packing, also known as Reduced Oxygen Packing (ROP). Click here for a detailed description of the various types of vacuum sealing and time restraints.

#4 - These baked potatoes were improperly cooled from the previous night and must now be discarded. The proper way to cool these would be to remove them from foil, slice them in half, and put them on a sheet pan, single layer, for rapid cooling. And are you familiar with the food safety risk? That would be botulism. Read more here about baked potatoes and botulism.