Pool chlorine among inspection issues at Joe’s Stone Crab’s processor in Miami Beach

An inspection of the seafood processing part of Joe’s Stone Crab turned up enough violations in food hazard prevention, safe food storage and sanitizing that the facility received the lowest inspection result.

The April 21 inspection wasn’t of Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant, but of Stone Crabs Inc., also at 11 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. Although done by the Florida Department of Agriculture, it was an FDA contract inspection.

The Ag Department inspects food processors, food storage facilities, food distributors, retail bakeries and wholesale bakeries, supermarkets, convenience stores and other sellers of packaged food. Of the possible inspection results listed with each entity on the Florida Department of Agriculture website, “Re-Inspection Required,” is the worst possible result.

That’s what Stone Crabs Inc. received on April 21. Ag Department inspectors can’t shut down a facility, but they can drop Stop Sale Orders on food and Stop Use Orders on equipment and areas.

Tuesday’s re-inspection, provided to the Miami Herald by Stone Crabs Inc., received a “Met Inspection Requirements” with the only violation noted being “Inside the walk-in refrigerator, unprotected baskets storing ready-to-eat Florida stone crab claws.”

Inspector Manuel Uribe also noted this was a repeat violation from his April 21 visit.

Dust, pool chlorine ... and what’s HACCP?

Most of the problems Inspector Uribe found concerned Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), a preventative, risk-reduction approach to food safety. They weren’t all the problems, however. Among them:

▪ “Inside the Sorting room for ready-to-eat Florida stone crab claws, observed dust accumulation on the fan guards of the cooling unit, paint peeling off the ceiling directly above the scale and excessive rust accumulation on the hook holding a metal piece of scale.”

▪ “Inside the walk-in freezer, the pallets were stored too close to the walls, preventing from conducting proper sanitation inspection of the food establishment.” Inspector Uribe said this violation also showed up on the Dec. 18, 2020, inspection of Stone Crabs Inc. done by Raymond Collada.

▪ “Inside the walk-in refrigerator, unprotected baskets storing ready-to-eat Florida stone crab claws.”

▪ “Sanitation Monitoring Control records do not accurately document the firm’s conditions and practices observed during today’s visit.” This was also a rerun from Dec. 18, 2020.

▪ “Observed food establishment using chlorine granules for swimming pools to sanitize plastic baskets where ready-to-eat Florida stone crab craws are stored.” Uribe dropped Stop Use Orders on the eight baskets and the chlorine granules. He lifted those orders when management threw out the granules and washed and sanitized the baskets with an approved sanitizer.

Staff “said that product had been in use to sanitize trays without incident for some time,” Stone Crabs Inc. emailed the Miami Herald. “They said that all trays must be sanitized after every use, and this was simply a case of using granular over liquid. It was never used directly with stone crabs. It was only used as an accepted method of sanitation for food equipment.

“They were told the liquid was the new protocol while the inspector was present. They had liquid Clorox on the premises so they were able to make the switch and voluntarily dispose of the chlorine during inspection.”

Now, as for problems with the HACCP plan for keeping the cooked Florida stone crabs from being unsafe to devour:

▪ The HACCP plan listed “ice coverage, internal temperature less than 40 degrees (measured) with a digital thermometer for each shipment “ at the receiving critical control point.

Uribe said this wasn’t followed and what was done didn’t guarantee the stone crab claws would be below 40 degrees “to control ... pathogenic bacteria growth and toxin formation.” And, this was a violation rerun from a July 9, 2019, FDA Inspection and the aforementioned Dec. 18, 2020, Florida Department of Agriculture inspection.

▪ The HACCP plan didn’t list “the critical control point for thawing of frozen cooked stone crab claws” so as to control grown of pathogenic bacteria and toxins. This was also on the 2019 FDA Inspection.

▪ The HACCP plan of checking the stone crab claws transport truck’s paperwork to verify temperature logs were being maintained didn’t “address calibration of the temperature monitoring instruments.”

▪ The HACCP plan didn’t include “at a minimum, a review of any consumer complaints,” another repeat violation from 2019 and 2020 inspections.

What’s the relationship between Stone Crabs Inc. and Joe’s Stone Crab?

“Stone Crabs Inc and Joe’s Stone Crab are completely separate legal entities,” Stone Crabs Inc. said in an email. “They have different management teams, different employees, and different (profit and loss statements). There is some commonality in ownership but that is the only connection.”

According to state records, Stone Crabs Inc.’s current officers are secretary/director Stephen Sawitz, treasurer/director Jodi Hershey and chief financial officer Jeff Finkelstein. Joe’s Stone Crabs, Inc.’s current officers are those three plus president/director Joann Bass.

More importantly, the stone crabs processed by Stone Crabs Inc. go to Joe’s Stone Crab, Joe’s Takeaway and Joe’s Shipping.

Joe’s Stone Crab passed its last state restaurant inspection by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation in October 2022.