ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
A Salem Hardee's restaurant that closed Tuesday afternoon to correct health violations discovered after two employees became ill from salmonella bacteria was scheduled to reopen today.
The restaurant, at Electric Road and Indiana Street, is being staffed by workers brought in from out of town until its 30-some employees get clean bills of health, said Ross Garland, district vice president for Boddie-Noell Enterprises. The Rocky Mount, N.C., company owns the Hardee's.
The two workers' illnesses may be unrelated to their employment, but because they are infected with salmonella, a foodborne disease, the restaurant could not be allowed to reopen with the same staff, said Dr. Molly Rutledge, director of the Roanoke and Alleghany health districts.
Two other employees have symptoms of the illness, she said.
The restaurant was open for a short time Wednesday morning because of a misunderstanding by management, but was ordered closed again when it still failed to pass a state Health Department inspection. Violations, which included mouse and fly infestations and poor hygiene, have been corrected, Rutledge said.
The restaurant's general manager is no longer working there, said Garland, who oversees 84 of Boddie-Noell's more than 300 restaurants.
"We've been in business here since 1972 and never had any problems of this nature," he said.
Hardee's restaurants in the area are usually "impeccable," Rutledge said.
Salmonellosis, the illness caused by salmonella, most often is associated with the handling of uncooked poultry. But the bacteria are shed in the stool and can be transmitted from one person to another through food handling if the ill person does not wash his or her hands properly after using the restroom.
Lack of hand-washing was one of the violations Karen Chaples, a state environmental health supervisor, found when she visited the restaurant Tuesday.
Chaples said she didn't see any workers wash their hands in the two hours she was there.
Hands should be washed before moving between handling raw and cooked foods, any time a worker is away from his station, after trash is taken out, after tables are wiped and after trips to the restroom, she said.
Workers might have used the wash basins in the restrooms, but they also are supposed to wash their hands a second time at a basin outside the restroom before re-entering the work area, Chaples said.
Employees have until today to provide stool samples to the Health Department, and it will take another two days of testing to see if more workers have been infected, Chaples said.
Chaples also found that mice had infested a storage building behind the restaurant and got into some food products, and that flies were numerous in the food preparation area.
Dirty wiping cloths were being used, too, she said. Wiping cloths are supposed to be stored in sanitizing solution between uses. Also, dishes were not being dipped in a final sanitizing solution.
Chaples' report also said the breading used on the chicken was not being kept at a low enough temperature and that the cooked temperature of hamburgers was not being monitored.
"The establishment needs thorough cleaning and sanitizing," she wrote in the report.
The restaurant is the second in the Roanoke and Alleghany districts closed by the department this year, according to Health Department records. Hunan Palace on Melrose Avenue Northwest in Roanoke was closed for two days last month while it got rid of a roach infestation.
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