CHESTER COUNTY, PA — From spoiled meats and moldy food to mouse droppings and malfunctioning refrigeration, county health inspectors uncovered a sweeping range of food safety violations during a wide-ranging round of inspections across Chester County on Thursday, raising serious concerns about sanitation and food handling practices at several popular eateries and food service locations.
The Chester County Health Department reported violations at multiple facilities on January 8, stressing that inspections are a “snapshot in time” meant to document conditions observed on the day of the visit. Still, the findings paint a troubling picture of food safety lapses that required immediate corrections, product disposal, and in some cases equipment shutdowns.
At ACAC Café inside the ACAC Fitness Center in West Chester, inspectors found what they described as some of the most severe issues of the day. Numerous foods, including raw ground turkey, bottled juices, and raw ground beef, were reported as slimy, spoiled, moldy, or expired and were deemed unwholesome and unsafe for consumption. Inspectors also cited employees for failing to wash their hands before putting on gloves, uncovered foods stored in refrigerators, food stored directly on the floor, unlabeled squeeze bottles, contaminated gloves, and a lack of any Chester County Certified Food Manager on site…