Six live mice skittering around a Sacramento shop were enough for county health inspectors to slam the brakes on business, temporarily closing a neighborhood market as part of a wider sweep that also turned up roaches, slime in ice machines, rodent droppings and problem food handling across the county.
Inspectors ordered Smile Food Market to close after documenting six live mice inside the store during a routine visit, according to The Sacramento Bee. That report notes county environmental-health staff shut down five eateries and markets in the same enforcement round and required corrections before any of them could reopen. Some businesses cleared follow-up inspections and resumed operations, while others stayed dark pending deeper cleaning and pest control.
How the County Decides When to Pull the Plug
Sacramento County uses a green–yellow–red placard system to show how a food business performed on inspection. Green means a pass, yellow signals two or more major violations that usually trigger a follow-up visit, and red marks an imminent danger that suspends the facility’s health permit until hazards are fixed. Placards must be posted by the entrance and inspectors return promptly to confirm corrections, the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department explains. The same system covers restaurants, markets and mobile food vendors countywide.
What Inspectors Logged In This Round
In addition to the closure at Smile Food Market, inspectors in the same batch of reports found about 32 live and dead German cockroaches at CO DO 2 Vietnamese Restaurant, which later passed a reinspection and earned a green placard, roughly 39 German cockroaches at Snowbee Tea Station, and about 17 at Valerio’s Tropical Bake Shop. Inspectors also counted roughly 36 rodent droppings at Brody’s Restaurant, including on top of an ice machine, noted slime buildup inside an ice machine at Camden Spit & Larder, flagged temperature violations at California Gyro & Kabobs, and spotted severely dented canned goods at Frends Brewhouse. Those details and the reinspection outcomes were summarized by The Sacramento Bee…