Four Merced-area restaurants with poor food-safety scores in July rebound in August inspections
Only one Merced County restaurant out of more than two dozen visited by county health inspectors in August received an “unsatisfactory” rating based on food-safety violations that were discovered.
But four others that had poor grades in July stepped up their game and regained either “satisfactory” or “good” ratings following reinspections by the Merced County Environmental Health Division.
The lone laggard, Freddy’s Kitchen in Snelling, continued to experience issues that carried over from its July inspection, including cold foods that were not being kept at a safe temperature of 41 degrees or lower. Some food items were discovered in a display case at temperatures above 51 degrees.
The restaurant was also criticized for a second consecutive month for having residential-grade equipment, rather than commercial restaurant equipment.
Those violations, combined with others noted by an inspector in an Aug. 14 visit, resulted in a total of 19 violation points. Merced County uses a scale in which inspections that generate six or fewer violation points receive a “good” rating, while scores between seven and 13 points earn a “satisfactory” grade. Scores of 14 or more violation points are ranked as “unsatisfactory.”
Information from the county’s food inspection website indicate that August is the third inspection since May 2022 in which Freddy’s Kitchen received an “unsatisfactory” grade.
Four other places that had received unsatisfactory scores from county inspectors in July or early August have since managed to bring their grades up:
- The Grove restaurant in Stevinson had racked up 18 points for an unsatisfactory rating in a July 17 inspection, was reinspected on Sept. 6 and upgraded to a satisfactory grade of eight points.
- The 6 Street Diner in Los Banos, which received an unsatisfactory score of 21 points from a july 18 inspection, was regraded as good with six points in an Aug. 23 reinspection.
- Panaderia La Unica in Livingston, which had 26 points in an July 20 inspection, compiled 12 points for a satisfactory rating following an Aug. 23 reinspection.
- Merced Grand Buffet, which piled up a whopping 43 points in an Aug. 2 inspection, was reinspected on Aug. 24 and earned a satisfactory score of eight points.
Of 28 markets, restaurants and snack bars inspected in August, 22 received “good” scores, and five had “satisfactory” scores.
Merced County’s Environmental Health Division maintains a database of restaurant and food inspections online for public viewing at its web page, www.countyofmerced.com/597/Environmental-Health; click the “Food Inspections” tab along the left side of the page.
