Meadville Wendy's closed by state Bureau of Food Safety

Meadville Tribune - 8/23/2018

Aug. 23--The state has temporarily closed Wendy's in Meadville.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services closed the fast food restaurant because of "gross facility and equipment sanitation" and "insect/rodent infestation."

Orange cones blocked access to Wendy's at 1011 Park Ave. on Wednesday afternoon. A sign posted by the Department of Agriculture on the business and dated Aug. 22, 2018, read, in part, "This facility was found to have violations, which constitute an immediate danger to public health or safety, as established in 7 Pa. Code Chapter 46. As a result, this facility has been ordered to remain closed until the facility has been re-inspected by and deemed safe to re-open by the Department."

According to an inspection on Wednesday, the state found three violations that led to the closing:

--The person in charge does not have adequate knowledge of food safety in this food facility as evidenced by this non-compliant inspection.

--Small flying insects are still present in facility.

--Non-food contact surfaces not cleaned at a frequency to preclude accumulation of dirt and soil. Significant improvements have not been made since last inspection as garbage/food residue and standing liquid is still present under stationary equipment.

"Nothing is more important to us than the high-quality restaurant experience that we provide, and we have stringent procedures in place to ensure safe and well-maintained restaurants," said MUY Hamburgers, the franchise organization that owns and operates the Meadville Wendy's restaurant, in an emailed statement to the Tribune. "The results of this recent health inspection are totally unacceptable to us and we are working closely with our pest control vendor, quality assurance experts and local health department to appropriately resolve the issues."

MUY Hamburgers said it was "taking this opportunity to retrain and reinforce our strict food safety and cleanliness procedures with our restaurant team."

William Nichols of the communications office of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture said restaurant shutdowns don't happen "very often."

"Restaurant shutdowns are rare, and only occur when there is an imminent hazard to public health as defined in the Pennsylvania Food Code, such as fire, flood, or infestation," Nichols said in an email to the Tribune.

"Two inspectors have ordered a closure of the retail food facility Wendy's #3171 located in Meadville, Crawford County, due to an overwhelming flying insect infestation and general lack of cleaning," wrote William Nichols from the communications office of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "A food inspector will conduct a follow-up inspection after being notified that a professional pest control service has eliminated the issue."

Nichols explained that common practice is for a business to contact the Department of Agriculture for the inspection to re-open to take place.

"We do our best to respond to their needs," he told the Tribune.

According to reports on the Department of Agriculture's website, Wendy's has had nine inspections between Jan. 10 and Aug. 3 and was found to be out of compliance in seven of those inspections.

"Out of compliance violations are anything that is not acceptable in the PA Food Code, which can range from minor infractions (a dirty dishrag on a food preparation surface) to major issues (food being held at an improper temperature), many of which can be corrected onsite during the time of inspection. (Those will be noted as "corrected on-site.") Those don't mean that a restaurant has "failed" an inspection, but if the violations aren't able to be immediately corrected, we will follow up to ensure that the restaurant is brought back into compliance with the law," Nicols wrote.

Wendy's store manager Tonya Leube had no comment when contacted by the Tribune on Wednesday afternoon.

Rick Green can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at rgreen@meadvilletribune.com.

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