Food ‘encrusted’ from the previous day on equipment as a Kendall Publix fails inspection

Problems with food contact equipment that hadn’t been cleaned and food at unsafe temperatures — including (oh, no!) the chicken tenders — caused a Miami-Dade Publix to fail state inspection on Tuesday.

Getting the lowest Florida Department of Agriculture inspection result (“Re-Inspection Required”) didn’t result in the shutdown of the Publix at Kendall Town and Country, 8250 Mills Dr.

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Unlike the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s restaurant inspectors, Ag Department inspectors can’t close supermarkets, convenience stores, retail bakeries, food storage facilities and food processors. But they can put Stop Use Orders on enough equipment and areas that make opening a pointless exercise.

Inspector Wenndy Ayerdis and Inspector Trainee Guisella Uribe didn’t have to drop any Stop Use or Stop Sale orders. But here’s the most notable of what they did find.

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▪ In the bakery, a rack of breads uncovered and left vulnerable to all manner of insects, sneezing and spittle.

▪ Also, in the bakery’s walk-in cooler, fruit custard tarts at 46.2 degrees. They need to be at 41 degrees or below for safe keeping and eating. Tarts got tossed.

▪ Same situation with prepared and packaged garden salads that measured 49.6 degrees after more than four hours in the produce walk-in cooler. The potential bacteria bowls went into the garbage.

▪ In the kitchen, a “food employee cooked chicken tenders and stated they were done cooking.” They needed to be 165 degrees. Some measured only 156 degrees.

▪ It wasn’t noted whether or not this was the same employee who “removed pre-cooked pork ribs from the oven as fully cooked and done reheating.” They needed to be 135 degrees. Some were as low as 113 degrees.

▪ The chicken tenders in the hot holding unit didn’t have a time written on them for when they got taken out of temperature control. Nobody knew when the tenders got put there. Tossed.

▪ Same thing with an open pack of ham in the deli display unit. How long? Who knows. Tossed, too.

▪ Back in the deli, “Old food residue encrusted on the slicer blade and guard that was last used (Monday).”

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