Health violations found at Ohio attractions, reports show

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – NBC4 Investigates reviewed well being inspection stories at a few of Ohio’s hottest points of interest for household enjoyable in the course of the summer season.

Dr. Riza Conroy, a household doctor at OSU Wexner Medical Heart has one phrase of recommendation to stop foodborne sickness in the course of the hotter months: “Chill, chill, chill, chill,” she mentioned. “That’s the way you protect and forestall micro organism or virus from rising.”

Meals being saved at improper temperatures was a violation that got here up when Erie County well being inspectors visited eight distributors at Cedar Level in 2021. In response to well being inspection stories from the Erie County well being division, most of that meals was thrown out.

In a single case, a Subway restaurant was closed as a result of it didn’t have correct refrigeration. A second Subway, the place an inspector discovered heat tomatoes and no cleaning soap on the worker hand sink, can be presently closed, based on the well being division.

Inspectors additionally discovered there was no scorching water – or no place to scrub fingers or dishes at three of the park’s Dippin’ Dots stands, out of a number of contained in the park. Conroy says washing fingers goes an extended technique to stop sickness.

“There’s that probability of the virus to develop,” Conroy mentioned. “Particularly if you’re dealing with it, and you haven’t actually cleaned your meals you’ve touched like doorknobs, you’ve touched different surfaces that different persons are touching.”

“As I perceive it… the 2 minor notes for these stands have been corrected,” a park spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail, telling NBC4 nobody was obtainable for an interview.

The famend amusement park has dozens of distributors. Most of them weren’t cited for any crucial, or extra critical, violations.

At King’s Island in Mason, Ohio, Warren County well being inspectors discovered crucial violations at six of the park’s distributors. None of these violations concerned meals temperature. The entire points have been corrected earlier than the inspector left, based on the stories.

King’s Island didn’t reply to requests for remark.

On the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Delaware County well being inspectors noticed crucial violations at two out of 14 distributors. These violations included spiders and spider webs within the storage room on the Lakeside Pavilion and flies on the Shores Park Café.

A zoo spokesperson mentioned these points have been all resolved. She mentioned the zoo voluntarily employed a 3rd occasion agency to examine the distributors 4 instances a 12 months, along with two inspections by native public well being officers.

“The Columbus Zoo household of parks continues to spend money on enhancing meals security, high quality and consistency as part of our broader funding in our visitor expertise,” the spokesperson mentioned.

Whereas the overwhelming majority of inspection stories NBC4 reviewed for this report confirmed distributors have been conserving their areas clear and secure, Conroy mentioned it by no means hurts to do your personal mini-inspection.

“Does it look clear? Do folks put on masks, particularly now with the pandemic? Particularly in the event that they’re those getting ready the meals? Are the employees cleansing their fingers earlier than handing the meals? Or are they sporting gloves?”

In case you are planning to deliver your personal meals someplace on a scorching day, Conroy emphasised the significance of chilling raw meals, and cooking meals completely.

If you happen to do catch a abdomen bug from one thing you eat, Conroy mentioned an important factor is to remain hydrated. She mentioned the commonest mistake dad and mom make is making their children drink an excessive amount of fluid too rapidly. She suggests giving them small servings spaced out, to make sure the water will get correctly absorbed.