Restaurant stores raw food above prepared food

The Pinal County Health Department inspected 22 Casa Grande restaurants in December, tagging five with less-than-perfect scores.

The five restaurants dinged were China King, 1275 E. Florence Blvd., Hong Kong Restaurant, 314 E. Florence Blvd., Eva’s Fine Mexican Food, 2033 N. Pinal Ave., Dell’s Pizza 1654 N. Pinal Ave and Ochoa’s Restaurant 512 E. Cottonwood Lane.

Both China King and Hong Kong were cited for dirty facilities and not storing cold food at the proper temperatures.

Eva’s was cited for the improper cooling of food products, Dell’s was dinged for employees not wearing gloves when handling food and Ochoa’s was knocked for storing raw food above ready to eat food.

The violations caused all the restaurants to receive scores of Satisfactory.

Health inspectors conduct random inspections aimed at ensuring all proper steps are taken to maintain consumer safety, Pinal County officials said. To that end, the department can issue violations that are either critical or non-critical. Critical violations must be fixed within 10 days and affect a location’s score. Non-critical violations must be fixed within 90 days.

Grades are based on the number of violations, with an “E” for excellent being the highest possible score. Other scores are: “S” for satisfactory, “U” for unacceptable and “N” for needs improvement.

The Casa Grande eateries receiving perfect scores were Denny’s Restaurant, 1851 E. Florence Blvd, Arby’s Roast Beef Restaurant, 1220 E. Florence Blvd., Cold Stone Creamery,1664 E. Florence Blvd., McDonald’s, 1249 E Florence Blvd., Manuel and Ruperto, 1300 N. Pinal Ave., Bosa Donuts, 1659 E. Florence Blvd., Burger King, 810 E. Florence Blvd., Macayo’s, 1564 E. Florence Blvd., Chili’s Grill and Bar, 1532 E. Florence Blvd., McDonald’s, 2824 N. Pinal Ave., Papa Murphy’s Pizza, 1485 E. Florence Blvd., Peter Piper Pizza, 1355 E. Florence Blvd., Panda Express, 1747 E. Florence Blvd., Del Taco, 2223 E. Florence Blvd., Wendy’s, 1127 E. Florence Blvd., Filiberto’s 1313 E. Florence Blvd. and Little Sombrero, 419 E. Florence Blvd.