A Stockbridge Chinese restaurant failed its routine health inspection last week, earning a score of 45 out of 100 — well below the 70 needed to pass under Georgia’s food safety rules.
What’s Happening: China Cafe III at 1481 Hudson Bridge Rd was inspected on July 21. The restaurant must now undergo a follow-up inspection to show the problems have been fixed.
The worst violations: Raw chicken was stored next to pooled eggs, sauces, cooked sweet and sour chicken, and cherries in the coolers. That can spread bacteria from raw meat to food that won’t be cooked again before it reaches a customer’s plate. The violation was not corrected during the inspection.
Beef, chicken, and ribs were also found stored warmer than 41°F, the maximum safe temperature for cold storage — also not corrected. Chicken wings were being held below 135°F, the minimum safe temperature for hot food; they were thrown out. Cooked chicken prepared around 10 a.m. was found sitting in the walk-in cooler without being properly cooled down, and was also discarded. A worker was seen touching sweet and sour chicken with bare hands; that food was thrown out too.
More violations: The kitchen’s handwashing sink had no paper towels or any other way to dry hands. Paper towels were brought out during the inspection. Prepared foods stored in the walk-in cooler, reach-in freezer, and reach-in coolers had no date labels — labels that tell staff when food needs to be thrown away. Bottles of degreaser and bleach had no labels on them. A dirty rag was found covering cooked chicken wings on a warmer, and rice noodles were sitting uncovered on a counter; both were discarded. No sanitizer solution had been prepared for the cloths used to wipe down food-prep surfaces; a solution was mixed during the inspection.
Facility issues: The back screen door was damaged and didn’t fit tightly, leaving an opening for insects or rodents to get in. A reach-in cooler had no thermometer inside. Restroom doors had no self-closing mechanism. Trash had built up around the outside dumpster. Single-use items like cups and containers were stored directly on the floor. An employee’s phone and drinks were left in an area where they shouldn’t have been.
What’s New: Several of the violations were repeats — problems that had been cited in a previous inspection and weren’t fixed. Those include an employee water bottle stored near single-use cups at the front counter, improperly stored utensils, and the restaurant’s inspection report not being posted where customers can read it.
The Path Forward: Georgia requires any restaurant scoring below 70 to be re-inspected. China Cafe III will need to show during that follow-up visit that the violations have been addressed.
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
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