Serious sanitation violations were discovered during recent health inspections at a pair of restaurants in The Villages.
An inspector paid a visit Sept. 16 to Darrell’s Diner at Southern Trace Plaza and found a high priority violation involving sanitizer that was not being used in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations, according to a report on file with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The old sanitizer was dumped out and replaced.
The inspector also found that there was no soap at an employee hand-wash station.
Other violations found at the restaurant by the inspector included:
• The interior of a microwave was encrusted with food debris.
• There was “No conspicuously located ambient air temperature thermometer” in a holding unit.
• A spray bottle containing a toxic substance that was not labeled.
That same day, an inspector visited a Darrell’s Diner restaurant at 1000 Bichara Blvd., also in The Villages, and found that a hand-wash sink for employees was not available due to items being stored in the sink.
At that Darrell’s Diner location, the inspector also found two high-priority violations:
• There was raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in a walk-in cooler.
• There were time/temperature violations involving sausage patties, potatoes and bacon.
The inspector also found the interior of a reach-in cooler was soiled with an accumulation of food residue; there was standing water in a prep cooler; there was reuse of single-service articles; food items stored on the floor; and an accumulation of debris on the exterior of a warewashing machine.