A health inspector found hygiene problems at a food truck operated on a regular basis for newer residents in the southern end of The Villages.
Last week, a health inspector visited two food trucks – Rita’s Cocina Mexicana and Ednas’ Provision and Vittles – that operate daily at the Village of Marsh Bend.
The inspection Wednesday at Rita’s Cocina Mexicana revealed one high-priority violation, three intermediate violations and two basic violations, according to a report on file with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
An employee was “touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands,” the inspector wrote in the report, indicating this was a high-priority violation. The food in question “was not being heated as a sole ingredient to 145 degrees Fahrenheit or immediately added to other ingredients to be cooked/heated to the minimum required temperature to allow bare hand contact,” the inspector wrote.
In addition, a cashier served desserts to customers without the cashier first conducting the required hand washing.
To complicate matters, a hand wash sink was not accessible for employee use due to it being blocked by a garbage can.
In addition to the hygiene issues, the inspector found violations involving raw food and inappropriate temperatures at Rita’s Cocina Mexicana food truck. For instance, there were three pork roasts standing in 55-degree water, the report said.
There was also food prepared on site and held for more than 24 hours – refried beans, pulled chicken and cooked chicken tacos – that were not properly date marked.
The inspector also found food stored on the floor and hand soap in unmarked squeeze bottles.
That same day, the inspector also paid a visit to the Ednas’ Provision and Vittles food truck. The lone violation found was bulk food stored on the floor in a stock room.
The crucial need for food service workers to properly wash their hands was a key concern cited when Florida Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees earlier this year declared a public health emergency due to the alarming rise in Hepatitis A cases. Sumter, Lake and Marion are among 17 counties in Florida that have been critically impacted by a hepatitis A outbreak. The health department in Sumter County in May issued an advisory warning of the spread of Hepatitis A.
Food workers should never touch ready-to-eat foods with bare hands and should carefully wash their hands after using the bathroom, according to health officials.
The food trucks have been dispatched by the Developer to fill the obvious void of restaurants for residents of the Village of Fenney, Village of DeSoto, Village of McClure and Village of Marsh Bend, as well as other areas quickly growing in the southern end of The Villages that do not enjoy golf cart access to the rest of Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.