26 La Jolla Restaurants Issued Health Violations

A total of 26 restaurants and food retailers in La Jolla had major health permit violations this year. The County’s Department of Environmental Health Food & Housing Division discovered these violations during routine inspections on the 251 eateries and food producers. The violations range from holding temperatures of food and food surface contact infractions to failing to hold a valid permit.

An explanation of the violations will be described below the chart.

In addition, Patch pulled 23 restaurants randomly to show these establishment’s latest grade by the Department of Health – one for each letter of the alphabet (minus Q, U and X.) The score is based on a scale from one to 100.

Violations defined by the county Department of Health:

Hand Washing violation: Examples of major violations include a food employee that is found not washing hands and exposed portions of arms as required, improper use of hand sanitizer, improper glove use, or not using appropriate utensils to minimize bare hand contact.

Food Contact Surfaces violation: Examples of major violations include improper sanitization of food contact surfaces, improper washing machine temperature, contamination of food contact surfaces that could result in food contamination, and failure to sanitize food contact surfaces between each use with a different type of raw food of animal origin, and each time there is a change from working with raw foods to working with ready-to-eat foods.

Holding Temperatures violation: Examples of major violations include multiple potentially hazardous foods (two or more food items in separate containers), or pooled eggs held at temperatures between 50°F and 130°F without any other intervention.

Proper Cooling violation: Examples of major violations include multiple cooked potentially hazardous foods that were not cooled from 135°F to 41°F or below within six hours, as required.

Hot and Cold Water violation: Examples of major violations include hot or cold water that is not available at all ware washing sinks in the food facility, hand wash sinks with warm water below 100°F, hot water at the utensil sink/ mop sink below 110°F, lack of water, or a contaminated/ unapproved water supply.

Permit violation: Examples include food facilities that are in operation without a valid public health permit, due to a change of ownership, expired/delinquent permit fees, or opening a retail food business without notifying and obtaining a valid permit from this department.

Protection from Contamination violation: Examples of major violations include food that is found to be adulterated, a food employee that has contaminated food (intentionally or unintentionally), ice that has been used to cool the exterior of surface of food is then used for human consumption, food that was received in poor condition such as cracked shell eggs or food containers infested with vermin, and the reuse of a food container that once stored poisonous or toxic substances.

Time as a Public Health Control: Examples of major violations include holding potentially hazardous food out of temperature control for more than four hours without clearly marking the time for food to be discarded on the food.

Approved Procedures violation: Examples of major violations include a food facility operator that is: curing food without an approved written HACCP plan or not in accordance with the approved HACCP plan, not following the state department approved HACCP plan procedure when required, not following the approved variance conditions/ procedures after having obtained a variance from the state department.

A Look at La Jolla Restaurants from A to Z:

*No number score provided.