Restaurant Inspections: Potbelly, Smile Thai

Inspectors from the Virginia Department of Health visited several restaurants in Loudoun County this week. See a sampling of those results below, and visit the health department's website for a complete list of recent inspections.

Potbelly Sandwich Works
44031 Pipeline Plaza #100
Date of inspection: June 3
Milk cold holding at improper temperatures.
 
Smile Thai Cuisine
24650 South Point Drive
Date of inspection: May 31
Raw foods of animal origin stored over ready-to-eat (RTE) food in the refrigeration unit in that raw shell eggs stored above onions in shelves in walk in refrigerator.
 
El Sol Azteca Mexican Restaurant
42830 Creek View Plaza #100
Date of inspection: May 30
No violations were found during the inspection.

"Ideally, an operation would have no critical violations, or none which are not corrected immediately and not repeated. In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," according to department of health website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long term cleanliness of an establishment."

Full reports can be accessed on the health department's website.

• A core item "usually relates to general sanitation, operational controls, sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs), facilities or structures, equipment design, or general maintenance."
• A priority item is "a provision in this Code whose application contributes directly to the elimination, prevention or reduction to an acceptable level, hazards associated with food-borne illness or injury and there is no other provision that more directly controls the hazard," and "includes items with a quantifiable measure to show control of hazards such as cooking, reheating, cooling, hand washing."
• A priority foundation item "includes an item that requires the purposeful incorporation of specific actions, equipment or procedures by industry management to attain control of risk factors that contribute to food-borne illness or injury such as personnel training, infrastructure or necessary equipment, HACCP plans, documentation or record keeping, and labeling."