Are cockroaches common at Sacramento restaurants? What causes closures? Health expert answers

From cockroaches and rat droppings to mold and yellow slime, Sacramento County health inspectors can encounter some eyebrow-raising conditions at local restaurants.

Sonia Andrusiak, a supervising environmental health specialist at Sacramento County, started doing restaurant inspections in Yolo County.

A Sacramento native, she returned to the capital city 20 years ago to work for the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department.

She started out inspecting restaurants in downtown Sacramento.

These days she manages a team of eight health inspectors who assess health code violations at coffee shops, bars, grocery stores and other food-serving facilities in south Sacramento County. That includes areas such as Elk Grove, Galt and Greenhaven.

Rodents, roaches and other vermin are “not a common occurrence in restaurants, Andrusiak said, but they’re always notable.

“Vermin are always on the top of my list,” she said, adding that she takes special note “when I see either a rodent or a cockroach.”

How many food facilities does Sacramento County inspect?

Sacramento County inspectors conduct an estimated 14,000 restaurant inspections annually.

An additional 1,000 inspections are conducted for temporary food events and mobile food facilities, Sacramento County spokesman Ken Casparis wrote in an email to The Sacramento Bee.

The county currently has 27 restaurant inspectors and one mobile food inspector, he said.

What are top health violations for Sacramento County restaurants?

The two most common violations that Sacramento County health inspections spot at restaurants are foods being held at improper temperatures and improper hand washing, Andrusiak said.

“The food is in the danger zone where the temperature can vary anywhere from 41 degrees to 135 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said.

According to the California Health and Safety Code , food facilities can hold raw, partially cooked or cooked foods in that temperature range for no longer than four hours, depending on the food.

Hot foods should always be held at 135 degrees or higher, the code said, and cold foods should be held at 41 degrees or less.

Another problem occurs “when an employee fails to wash his hands after changing tasks,” Andrusiak said.

On April 10, inspectors saw Pita R Us employees preparing food without washing their hands.

During The Sacramento Bee’s roundup of local restaurant inspections from April 18 through April 24, five out of the six restaurants that were cited for violations had food at improper holding temperatures.

Blue Rice Cafe was cited April 17 for an employee failing to wash their hands.

What about cockroaches?

Cockroaches sometimes pop up in county restaurants, and inspectors have to tally their numbers

“We physically count them,” Andrusiak said, “and then identify them when they’re in the nymph stages or juvenile or adult,” stages.

No special tools are required, she said, adding that inspectors simply need a “good eye” and a flashlight.

However, Andrusiak said inspectors also get “a lot” of in-house training on vermin and learning how to distinguish different species.

About 1% of facilities closed by inspectors are shut down due to cockroach infestations, Andrusiak said, adding that it’s a situation that needs to be handled “very gently.”

If there’s a roach infestation at a restaurant, inspectors must call their supervisors to determine whether there is a health risk at the facility.

The inspectors then sit down with the restaurant’s owners and advise them that the restaurant will need to shut down immediately.

Patrons who are at the restaurant at that time are asked to leave, Andrusiak said, and no one is allowed to come inside or order food until the issue is resolved.

Do cockroaches get worse in the summer?

Spotting cockroaches at food facilities is not a seasonal occurrence.

In fact, county health inspectors see cockroach infestations year round, Andrusiak said.

“There’s not a season where we’re like, ‘Ooh, we haven’t seen roaches in like three months’ or anything like that,” she said. “It’s just how the facility is kept up.”

What are reasons restaurants get shut down?

Health inspectors can shut down restaurants for any major health code violation that can’t be corrected on site, Andrusiak said.

A vermin infestation is the most common reason for inspectors to close food-serving facilities, she said.

Sewage backups, a broken dishwasher, a lack of refrigeration and similar issues can also be grounds for closures.

“Lack of restrooms would also be a (reason for a) closure because then (customers and employees) don’t have any place to urinate or defecate and wash their hands properly,”Andrusiak said.

After decades as a health inspector and supervisor, Andrusiak said she’s not easily shocked by violations.

“It would take a lot for me to be ‘Oh my gosh,’ ” she said, unless the restaurant in question is “infested with rodents and there’s rodent feces everywhere on top of food.”

Even then, she added, “I’m still not super grossed out about it.”

What are resources for Sacramento County food facilities?

Sacramento County provides resources to food facilities to either get back on track after being shut down or to simply stay in compliance.

The primary resource for restaurants and other businesses are the “boots-on-the-ground field inspectors,” Andrusiak said. They are the ones who are going into the facilities and providing first-hand education.

The county offers office hours from 8 to 10 a.m. when a specialist is on duty to answer questions to restaurant owners.

There are also yearly workshops that are hosted by the county such as, a food safety education workshop that covers the five most common public health risk factors.

Resources are also available on the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department website.

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