Moldy food, slimy ice: See restaurant health inspections

Creepy crawlies, mold on everything from nacho cheese to ice scoops, and altogether unidentifiable food items stored in a walk-in refrigerator. These were some of the lowlights during routine restaurant inspections in the first half of April in Washoe County drinking and dining establishments.

Altogether, 13 restaurants were written up during routine inspections by Northern Nevada Public Health from April 1-15, with two shut down altogether and another receiving a failing grade.

Northern Nevada Public Health, formerly known as the Washoe County Health Department, issues four types of inspection ratings:

● Pass: Fewer than three critical violations during inspection.

● Conditional pass: Three to five critical violations that can be corrected immediately. The facility may remain open and a reinspection will occur to "verify that all violations have stayed corrected," according to NNPH'S explanation of the process.

● Fail: A restaurant has more than six critical violations that are able to be corrected during the inspection. The facility may remain open before a reinspection to ensure all violations have stayed corrected.

● Close: Restaurant has critical violations that can't be remedied during the inspection.

Below is a sampling of critical and non-critical violations found in the first half of April 2024.

Reno-Sparks restaurants closed due to critical health violations

7-Eleven

770 Keystone Ave., Reno

● Food-contact surfaces: frequency of cleaning and sanitizing: Person in charge stated that utensils including pizza cutter and tongs are only washed at the end of each shift.

● Warewashing equipment: Drain line underneath the sanitize compartment was not connected to the basin, allowing water to flow out of the basin and on to the floor.

● Handwashing sink: Employee demonstrated warewashing by rinsing a pizza cutter inside of the handwashing sink behind the service counter. Chopsticks

120 Country Club Drive No. 62, Incline Village

● Food condition: Observed a metal container of food in the back of the