Health inspectors are not sushi critics
Reporters analyze the ratings of three popular sushi restaurants in Hamden
By Rachael Durand, Kelly Ryan, and Hannah Feakes
An analysis of restaurant health and safety files shows that sushi restaurants in Hamden are inconsistent when it comes to food safety.
Quinnipiack Valley Health District files for three local sushi restaurants show that Sakura Garden has worked it’s way up in the ratings to its present ‘A,’ which means it shows “substantial compliance” with state food safety and sanitation rules. Kumo Japanese Restaurant has fluctuated, and Sushi Palace has just recently earned a higher rating.
A few owners and employees say the success of their business is not reflected in the rating they received from QVHD, while others say the grade on their front door has less of an effect on their business.
Sushi Palace received a ‘C’ rating during an inspection on March 9, 2017.
However, the restaurant received a re inspection after reporters visited the establishment on April 5, 2017. Sushi Palace now sports an ‘A’ on their front door, as of April 6, 2017.
Prior to the re-inspection, a waiter at Sushi Palace, Yang, who did not wish to share his last name, believed his restaurant’s “strong customer base” kept their business successful, irrespective of the ‘C.’
“We eventually lose some customers that are not regular customers,” Yang said. “But our regular customers know the ‘C’ is not about our food quality. Our regular customers trust us and we trust them.”
At QVHD, a ‘C’ rating indicates a need for improvement.
Inspection reports for Sushi Palace included issues pertaining to “no qualified food operator, no training records, uncovered containers of food in coolers, no hand-washing, handled food with bare hands and need consumer advisory on all menus.”
An employee of Kumo Japanese Restaurant, Grace, who did not wish to share her last name, believes QVHD’s rating system is unfair.
Kumo received an ‘B’ rating during its most recent inspection on Jan. 25, 2017.
A ‘B’ rating indicates acceptable substantial compliance with the applicable rules and regulations.
The inspection reports listed issues including “unlabeled toxic in food containers, diarrhea medicine in wait staff area, no sanitation buckets, unsanitary sushi cabinets, coolers in sushi area in poor, deteriorated condition and waste pipe leaking.”
“We just had one thing that doesn’t have a label on it,” Grace said. “I think it’s not fair. Of course it’s going to affect our business, that’s my opinion.”
Grace said customers would call the business and ask what it’s rating was when the system was first put into place, and Kumo would have to tell its customers it received a ‘B.’
As of Dec. 22, 2015, Sakura Garden had a ‘C’ rating, but worked it’s way up to an ‘A’ during its most recent inspection on Jan. 10, 2017.
Notes found at the end of the report for the Jan. 10 inspection for Sakura Garden indicated that the “freezer door needed to be cleaned and eggs needed to be on trays or bottom shelves.”
Sakura Garden owner and employees declined to comment their current health inspection rating.
One potential health violation that consumers may not be aware of is how important the temperature of the sushi rice is held at.
Ryan Currier, a health inspector at QVHD, explained that rice, as a potentially hazardous food, would need to be kept either cold (45 degrees or less) or hot (140 degrees or more), unless an approval is granted.
“One of the big challenges for the sushi restaurants is the sushi rice because if you talk to the sushi guys, they need that rice to be at room temperature so they can make their sushi rolls,” Currier said. “For (QVHD), when (restaurants) have cooked rice, it needs to stay really cold or really hot.”
“I can’t allow room temperature rice,” Currier said.
Currier said that when rice has been out of temperature for four hours, bacteria then begins to grow.
For sushi makers, it is important for rice to be easily moldable.
Luis Simon, the sushi chef at Sushi Palace explained that he prefers his rice between 90 and 95 degrees. Sushi Palace received point deductions for keeping rice outside of the required temperatures.
In attempt to evaluate Quinnipiac student sushi preferences, reporters distributed a survey.
Out of the 100 students that responded, 87 percent of those polled said that they eat sushi.
Sixty-five percent of students polled said they have eaten sushi at Kumo Japanese Restaurant, while 61 percent have eaten sushi at Sakura Garden and 29 percent have eaten at Sushi Palace.
Seventy-eight percent of students said that they would not eat at a restaurant with a ‘C’ rating.
After assessing the inspection reports of three sushi restaurants in Hamden reporters found that most of the violations were not food quality related.
**All photos courtesy of Rachael Durand. All rights reserved.
