Fly on a cake, roaches on a cutting board and bad pastelitos at Miami-Dade bakeries

Running roaches, unwashed equipment encrusted with food debris and pastelitos kept at a temperatures that invite stomach-turning bacteria were just some of the problems inspectors found at two West Miami-Dade bakeries last week.

And, one bakery’s problems turned out the lights for three days.

Party Cake Bakery and Cien Años De Pandebono (licensed as “Pandebono Bakery”) got checked on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, by the Florida Department of Agriculture inspection team of Catalina Ordonez and Wenndy Ayerdis. Each managed only “Re-Inspection Required,” the lowest result of a Department of Agriculture inspection.

Agriculture Department Inspectors, who check retail and wholesale bakeries as well as packaged food sellers from Publix down to FedEx/Kinko’s, can’t shut down an establishment. They can, however, carpet the place with Stop-Use Orders on areas or equipment. Enough of those and management can decide the place shouldn’t or can’t open.

That’s what happened Thursday.

Cien Años De Pandebono aka Pandebono Bakery

If you swung by Cien Años De Pandebono, 10748 SW 72nd St., Saturday, you’d have found darkness. The inspection tells why, and it’s not just that Pandebono had an expired permit.

▪ In the processing area, inspector saw “live roaches crawling on the faucet of the handwash sink; on the wall where the handwash sink is attached; above the ware wash sink; on the floor near the ware wash sink; and on the cutting board hanging next to the hand sink.”

Pandebono got plastered with Stop Use Orders on the ware wash sink; the utensils in the processing and food service areas; all open food processing and handling areas in the processing and food service areas; and all food-related equipment.

Can’t make pastelitos and croquetas with all that taken out of action.

▪ A slicer on the prep table was “found with old food residue on the plate, blade guard and meat grip.”

▪ The coffee machine’s “steam wand used for milk was not washed, rinsed and sanitized after more than four hours of use.”

▪ Proper food safety dictates that food in the hot holding unit should measure at or above 135 degrees. Pandebono’s hot holding had egg arepas at 116 degrees; corn arepas, cheese pastelitos and guava and cheese pastelitos at 106 degrees; and cheese bread at 73 degrees.

Sausages that needed to be under 41 degrees measured a perilous 48 degrees in a malfunctioning reach-in cooler. Sauces made in the store came in at 46 degrees in a different cold unit.

Stop Sales dropped on all of the above. Basura. And they had to stop using the reach-in cooler.

▪ In the food service area, “Food employees did not wash their hands between entering and exiting the food preparation area and handling food items and utensils.”

Cheese got hit with a Stop-Sale after a “food employee handled cheese directly with her bare hand.”

▪ The use of bare hands makes it truly disturbing that there was “No hot water available at the employee unisex restroom handwash sink.”

▪ In fact, the “water heater for the entire establishment was found in disrepair with no hot water available at all hand sinks and ware wash sink.” This actually did get fixed during the inspection, although the bakery clearly opened without hot water.

▪ In addition to hot water, other elements of proper washing missing were soap at a handwash sink next to a freezer and soap and paper towels at a handwash sink next to the ware wash sink.

▪ “No sink stoppers were available to wash, rinse, and sanitize equipment and utensils at the ware wash sink.

▪ Someone “washed and rinsed food utensils and did not sanitize them before letting the containers dry.”

▪ Then again, there was “no sanitizer available to sanitize washed equipment and utensils.”

▪ “Food employees engaged in food preparation with no hair restraint.”

Stop Sale Orders: Cheese after being grabbed by a worker’s bare hands. Cheese pastelitos, quava and cheese pastelitos, corn arepas, egg arepas and cheese bread not kept at a warm enough temperature. Sausages and store-made sauces weren’t stored at a cold enough temperature.

Stop Use Orders: For running roaches on or nearby, “all food-related equipment and utensils located in the food service area, as well as open food handling/serving/preparation/cooking/heating equipment in the food service area;” the ware wash sink; “all food-related equipment and utensils located in the processing area and open food handling/serving/preparation/cooking/heating equipment in the processing area.” White reach-in cooler because it couldn’t perform its raison d’etre of cooling items to 41 degrees or less.

Party Cake Bakery

Aside from the roaches, what the Ayerdis-Ordonez team saw Wednesday at Party Cake Bakery, 10815 Bird Rd., acted as a preview for Thursday at Pandebono.

▪ An ice machine had “black, mold-like grime encrusted all over the interior housing of the ice machine and within the ice-making chute.”

▪ The adjacent handwash sink lacked soap and paper towels.

▪ “Multiple live flies flying throughout” the processing and food service areas ended with a cake getting tossed when one of the inspectors spotted a fly “landed directly on top of a cake stored on rolling cart located next to preparation table.” A Stop-Sale order was issued on the cake.

▪ Followed into the trash by three cake sheets. “Food employee used bare hands to directly touch the cake sheets while cutting it into big sections.”

▪ “Slicer on preparation table found with old food residue on the plate, blade guard and meat grip” and “yellow,dried-on cake mixture encrusted on mixer’s attachment joint above the mixing bowl at the floor mixer.”

▪ “Heavy, dried-on milk accumulated on steam wand that was in use after more than four hours without being cleaned.”

▪ No sanitizer available to sanitize washed equipment and utensils.”

▪ “Old, dark food residue encrusted on the inside of the bulk flour and sugar containers.”

▪ “No sink stoppers available to wash, rinse, and sanitize equipment and utensils at the ware wash sink.”

▪ “Water leaks from the base of the ware wash sink faucet for the wash compartment when water is turned on.”

▪ “A direct connection exists between the ware wash sink and sewage system.” This means if there’s a sewage system backup, the ware wash sink becomes a sewer.

▪ “Black, mold-like growth accumulated on the wall and ceiling above the walk-in freezer door” in the processing area.

▪ In the same area, there were “exposed air conditioning ducts, joists and pipes present above the stove, fryer, oven, and ware wash sink.” Party Cake has until May 1 to get them covered so they’re not exposed to the processing area and equipment underneath them.

▪ There wasn’t a splash guard between the handwash sink and preparation tables at the decoration area or between the handwash sink and coffee machine in the food service area. So, a cake’s icing or a colada might include a little water splashing from dirty hands.

▪ Or, maybe not, if people don’t even wash their hands. Inspectors saw food service area and processing area workers not washing their hands “between entering and exiting food preparation area and handling food items and utensils.”

▪ “Food employees did not change their single-use gloves between tasks, entering and exiting the area/walk-in cooler, and after the gloves have become contaminated.”

▪ A handwash sink held a bag and utensils, not exactly the sign of the sink being often used..

▪ Ham and cheese croissants in the walk-in cooler measured 45 degrees. Too warm. Stop Sale.

▪ Milk next to the milk steamer measured 86 degrees, far too warm. Stop Sale.

▪ “Multiple food items under time as a public health control were not discarded once the four-hour time limit was exceeded.” So, the inspectors dropped Stop Sales on egg sandwiches; ham, cheese and ground beef preparados, meat empanadas, potato balls, meat pastelitos and ham and cheese pastelitos.

Stop Sale Orders: A cake after a fly landed on it. A cake sheet after touched by a bare hand. A plastic ice scoop was broken. Ham and cheese croissants, milk, meat empanadas, meat pastelitos, ham and cheese pastelitos all were kept at temperatures too high.

Stop Use Orders: None.