Health department closed 2 Kewanee restaurants for food violations
The Henry & Stark County Health Department over the weekend shut down two restaurants that serve Chinese food in Kewanee for violating state health codes.
Last week, New China restaurant and the Great Wall were closed due to multiple priority violations, according to the HSCHD director of environmental health, Kaylee Halberg.
On Monday, New China had corrected enough of the violations that the owners opened their doors for lunch. But at the Great Wall, a red sign announcing the health department closure remained on the restaurant’s door. A meeting was scheduled between the proprietors of the restaurant and health officials for Tuesday morning. Halberg said she expected the restaurant could reopen midweek.
The restaurant closures come after almost a three-year hiatus from food inspections. COVID-19 hindered health inspections and government mitigations of the pandemic forced many restaurants to close inside dining. Only recently, Halberg said, have inspections started up again.
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The inspection at the New China restaurant came about due to a customer complaint from last year that the food coming off the buffet wasn’t warm and the booth was “filthy” from food stuck along the side of the seat and the wall. According to the formal complaint lodged by a customer, when she complained to the waitstaff about the cold food and dirty booths, she was told that if she didn’t like it, not to come back.
The inspection of the Great Wall was a routine re-check and not a case of the health department singling out certain restaurants for inspection, Halberg said. With her staff up and running again, all area restaurants will be getting visits, she said, with category one restaurants, those of high risk, returning to three inspections a year.
Halberg said the lack of inspections over the last several years may have allowed business owners to loosen their health and safety practices.
“Currently, routine inspections are being prioritized,” she said. “Our job isn’t to put (restaurants) out of business. We do know what they’ve gone through over the last couple of years. We want to get back the rapport with them.”
Many of the violations at the New China restaurant had to do with maintenance and repairs of the building, Halberg said, which the people who run the restaurant don’t actually own. The inspection performed on April 11 cites the business as not in compliance in areas of plumbing, building maintenance, lighting and ventilation, but also in priority areas such as protection against contamination, the safety of both food and water and the lack of proper hand washing and hygiene.
On the food establishment inspection report, Halberg noted that at New China there were rodent droppings observed and the accumulation of “filth everywhere.”
Violations at the Great Wall were numerous and included the improper storage of toxic substances, inadequate hand washing stations, food items being stored on the floor, and problems with the physical facility such as unclean surfaces throughout the restaurant.
Halberg said closing down restaurants with multiple priority violations is often the best way to address all of the safety issues and get the business up and running again.
This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Kewanee restaurants New China, Great Wall closed by health department
