CINCINNATI — Ryan Ridgely is not a typical food court customer.
A seven-year veteran of the pest-control industry, Ridgely has actually developed a heightened awareness of insects and rodents.
“I can smell a mice problem. I can smell if there’s a large number of German cockroaches,” he said. “If I walk into a restaurant and smell it, I won’t be eating there that night. But I will drop off a business card and stop back on Monday.”
Ridgely is the service and quality assurance director for Perfection Pest Control Inc. in Union, Ky. For more than two years, he was in charge of pest prevention at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. So he wasn’t surprised to learn that seven local shopping centers had food-safety violations involving insects, flies, rodents and other pests in 2015.
At Kenwood Towne Centre, for example, Hamilton County inspectors “observed the presence of live insects” at Gold Star Chili, Bourbon Street Grill, Aroma Restaurant & Sushi and Fresh Healthy Café. General Manager Wanda Wagner-Turiak said the safety of its guests “are of paramount importance” to the mall.
“We support and cooperate fully along with all health department inspections,” she said. “Any time a violation or infraction is discovered, we require and expect our food vendors to take immediate corrective action.”
Eastgate Mall’s food court has actually suffered from a “low-level, chronic kind of infestation” since 2012, said Rob Perry, environmental health director for Clermont County. In a written response to questions from WCPO, Eastgate Mall regional marketing director Sean Phillips said: “Eastgate Mall hires a third-party company to inspect and treat the mall common areas, including the Food Court, as needed. In addition our tenants are required to do the same by lease agreement.”
So what’s a diner to do? Think like an exterminator.
“I can walk into a shopping center or ball park or even a restaurant and I can pick out very quickly if they have actually conditions conducive to a pest” problem, Ridgely said. “If you don’t see a lot of food debris or organic matter built up in corners, under equipment or on the counters, it’s less likely there is going to be a pest problem.”
This is the fourth year that WCPO has actually offered an in-depth look at food-safety violations at multiple health department jurisdictions in the Tri-State. It’s the only place where you can find all violations from six area counties and two municipalities. It’s the only place where you can learn how individual restaurants stack up versus more than 5,000 others in the region.
Related: Dirty Dining 2016: Is sushi safer than burgers?
Related: See 2014 violations at Cincinnati’s Public Places
This is the second year that WCPO has actually parceled out its data into “public places.” These are the sports venues, arenas, convention centers and cultural attractions that fly under the radar in health-code violation reports because they are licensed under multiple names.
Paul Brown Stadium, for example, has actually more than 50 locations separately licensed by the Cincinnati Health Department. Newport on the Levee has actually more than 20 locations that serve food. When you combine these violations, you get a better sense for the safety of the food at your favorite sports or music venue, casino, mall, museum or amusement park.
The public places database lets you search by 10 different categories. Brand-new to this year’s list are hospitals, colleges and “corporate kitchens,” or cafeterias that provide easy access to breakfast and lunch for employees of big companies such as Procter & Gamble Co., Macy’s, Fifth Third Bank, Western & Southern Financial Group and Toyota.
WCPO Insiders can search the public places database to find which company had the cleanest corporate kitchen and which hospital had the most violations. Insiders also can dig deeper into that pesky problem of pests. Also tune in at 11 p.m. on 9 on Your adverse to watch our I-Team Special Report.
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