Inspectors shut down more than 90 restaurants
Health inspectors have been shutting down Central Florida restaurants at a record pace over the past 15 months, most recently targeting eateries with flies and other airborne insects in their kitchens.
More than 90 restaurants in metro Orlando were temporarily closed by inspectors from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation between July 2017 and June 2018, the highest rate since at least 2012, the furthest back for which records are available.
Nearly all were cited for a few
specific reasons, mostly the presence of roaches and rodents or problems with plumbing, either backed up drains or a lack of running water.
But since earlier this year, a growing number of restaurants have been cited for flying insects in their kitchens and other food preparation areas.
“I’ve been working with restaurants on health inspections for more than 10 years and until recently, I’ve only seen a few closed for having flies,” said Ed Nestor, a food safety training consultant with Stars Solutions in Orlando. “Then over the last few months, there have been a bunch.”
Pizzeria Valdiano in east Orange County was one such restaurant that found itself closed after an inspection on Aug. 27.
“They shut us down over nine fruit flies,” said coowner Maria Palo. “It wasn’t as if there was an infestation. I think a warning would have been better.”
Because the inspection was at 2 p.m. that day, the restaurant was shut down until an inspector could return the next day. Palo said the restaurant missed dinner service and was issued a $400 fine.
“I’ve been running restaurants for 35 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Palo, who also runs the Stasio’s Italian Deli on Robinson Street in Orlando. “We have a pest control company. It just happened that there were a few flies that day.”
Food and Drug Administration guidelines say that restaurants need to be free of pests such as flies, roaches, other insects and rodents, said Maegan Wynn, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the agency that oversees restaurant inspections throughout the state.
“The division has observed an increase in the number and frequency of violations related to flying insects during restaurant inspections,” she said.
The overwhelming majority of emergency closures are still a result of the presence of roaches, state records show. Other reasons a restaurant can be automatically closed includes flies, rodents, a lack of running water and wastewater on the floor.
There is growing evidence in the scientific community that fruit flies and other common kitchen pests pose a health danger, said Roy Costa, a food safety consultant in DeLand who worked as a state inspector for 21 years. A study published in the Journal of Food Protection in March said while fruit flies were long considered a nuisance, they can actually carry harmful bacteria.
“Some new research shows that both of these can move some common pathogens around,” said Costa, who said that E.coli, salmonella and listeria can be transported by flies. “If they get in a restaurant’s drain, there’s some nasty stuff they can bring back to the food.”
Central Florida had a hot weather streak this summer, which along with moisture increases the prevalence of flies, Costa said.
While there were fewer inspections last year, there was about a 2 percent increase in complaints from the public last year statewide.
Tracking restaurants in just the Orlando region is a big job. There are now about 11,200 food serving establishments in the region, including restaurants, food trucks, caterers and food carts.
Inspectors embarked on nearly 17,000 visits in Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties between July 2017 and June 2018. Each restaurant gets a visit at least once a year, and those with a record of violations get more.
A record 1,581 complaints were lodged against Orlando area restaurants by the public last year. There was also an increase throughout Florida, Wynn said.
Still, only about 0.5 percent of all inspections result in a restaurant being closed. Most reopen within 24 hours.
“An emergency closure is not punitive in nature, but rather is levied to give the establishment time to eliminate the conditions that present the risk to the public,” Wynn said. “There are, of course, more serious violations [like live insects or vermin] that take time to correct. In those cases, the department may have to issue an emergency closure until the establishment can obtain pest control services and the violations are corrected.”