Restaurant Inspections: Lotus Garden, Starbucks

Inspectors from the Virginia Department of Health Visited several restaurants in or near Vienna this week. See a sampling of those results below, and visit the health department's website for a complete list of recent inspections.

Lotus Garden
224 Maple Ave. W.
Date of inspections: April 23
Three critical, six-non critical violations
Raw animal food holding in a manner that may cause cross contamination of ready-to-eat food as follows: Raw pork stored immediately next to cooked chicken in walk-in cooler. Cooked vegetables stored immediately next to raw chicken and seafood in prep cooler top. Raw chicken over roasted pork in walk-in freezer.

Starbucks Coffee #7479
8381 Leesburg Pike
Date of inspections: April 26
One critical violation, three non-critical violations
Upon discussion with the person-in-charge, one or more of the elements of an effective employee health policy is either missing or incomplete.
 
Daily Item
7950 Jones Branch Drive
Date of inspections: April 24
One critical violation
The following food items were observed cold holding at improper temperatures using a calibrated food temperature measuring device: Cream cheese in refrigerator. Milk in small refrigerator. All moved to refrigerator 49.

"Ideally, an operation would have no critical violations, or none which are not corrected immediately and not repeated. In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," according to department of health website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long term cleanliness of an establishment."

Full reports can be accessed on the Health Department's website.

• A core item "usually relates to general sanitation, operational controls, sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs), facilities or structures, equipment design, or general maintenance."
• A priority item is "a provision in this Code whose application contributes directly to the elimination, prevention or reduction to an acceptable level, hazards associated with foodborne illness or injury and there is no other provision that more directly controls the hazard," and "includes items with a quantifiable measure to show control of hazards such as cooking, reheating, cooling, handwashing."
• A priority foundation item "includes an item that requires the purposeful incorporation of specific actions, equipment or procedures by industry management to attain control of risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness or injury such as personnel training, infrastructure or necessary equipment, HACCP plans, documentation or record keeping, and labeling."