With school back in session, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s restaurant inspectors took a look at 11 establishments, including those on the Missouri State University campus, and found four priority violations among them this past week.
Greenwood Laboratory School received a priority violation for not having sanitizer in its dish machine, which was corrected on site. MSU’s Garst Dining Hall was cited for two priority violations: Pom and Honey’s hot holding unit not keeping food warm enough and for the deli’s cold-holding unit not working properly. Those violations were corrected by plugging the hot holding unit in and by using ice baths at the deli station. Also at MSU, Queen City Soul Kitchen was cited for mac-and-cheese being below 135 degrees, which was corrected by reheating the food in the oven.
Issues found during inspection fall into either priority or non-priority violations. Priority violations impact the safety of the food, such as cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food, improper food temperature and poor personal hygiene and employee health. Multiple priority violations can lead to an establishment being shut down. Non-priority violations alone do not directly affect food safety, such as dirty floors, sticky tabletops or outside trash cans not being covered.