Canton Italian restaurant fails health inspection with a 50

A Canton Italian restaurant failed its routine health inspection Tuesday, scoring a 50 out of 100 — low enough to trigger a reinspection within 10 days that could force the restaurant to close.

What happened: Campania, at 225 Reformation Parkway, received a U grade during a Georgia Department of Public Health inspection October 13. The restaurant scored an 81 in January and a 90 in February 2025.

What the inspector found: The report lists more than a dozen violations, including several that were serious enough to require food to be thrown out on the spot:

• Raw ground beef was stored in the same container as deli meats, with meat juices pooling at the bottom. Raw shell eggs were stored above ready-to-eat food. Raw shrimp was stored above cooked chicken.
• Feta cheese was sitting at 59 degrees — well above the 41-degree limit for cold food — because it was stacked on top of another container instead of sitting directly in the cooler.
• A bartender handled ready-to-eat food, cash, credit cards, and dirty dishes without washing their hands. A server also handled ready-to-eat food with bare hands.
• Pomodoro sauce made at 11 a.m. was still at 63 degrees at 3:45 p.m. Alfredo sauce made at 3 p.m. was at 130 degrees at 3:45 p.m. Both were cooling in large, covered containers in the walk-in cooler instead of in shallow pans or ice baths as required. Both were moved to ice baths during the inspection.
• Several prepared foods in the coolers had no date labels. Food held for more than 24 hours must be labeled with the date it must be used or thrown out.
• The bar’s dish machine was not releasing any sanitizer. The three-compartment sink’s sanitizer line was also not working, leaving sanitizer buckets at zero concentration.
• A deli slicer had food debris on it. Six knives were stored wedged between a prep sink and the wall.
• At least five employees were preparing food without hair or beard restraints. The restaurant did not have the restraints on hand to fix the problem during the inspection.
• Shelves in the walk-in cooler had significant mold-like buildup.

What was fixed on the spot: Inspectors noted that most violations were corrected during the visit, including discarding contaminated and improperly stored food, cleaning the slicer and knives, priming the dish machines, and moving sauces to ice baths.

What’s next: The restaurant must fix remaining violations by October 16. A reinspection will happen within 10 days. If the restaurant does not score high enough, the inspector’s report says the restaurant will be asked to close until staff complete required training.