A total of four restaurants in the Guam Premiere Outlets food court have been shut down by the Department of Public Health and Social Services. China Wok, Imperial Garden & Mongo Mongo were closed for signs of rodents and Aji Ichi was closed because of cockroaches.
Guam – DPHSS Director James Gilan tells PNC that his agency received a complaint yesterday(Tues.) morning about the China Wok restaurant in GPO’s food court. Public Health sent investigators there to inspect the establishment and found evidence of rodent activity. They also found evidence of rodents at two other restaurants namely Imperial Garden and Mongo Mongo.
Today inpsectors went back to the food court to continue inspections of neighboring establishments and had to shut down Aji-Ichi because of a cockroach infestation. According to Marilou Scroggs EPHO Administrator of DPHSS’s division of Environmental Health the Aji-Ichi would have been shut down without the cockroach infestation because it failed on demerits without the roaches. Aji-Ichi received a “D” rating.
While there inspectors also noticed waste water overflow from the floor sink of the KFC. Scroggs says it was a minor infraction caused by washing kitchen equipment in a floor sink with a discharge pipe that was bigger than the receiving pipe which caused waste water to backup and flow onto the floor. Scroggs says it is not a serious problem so they allowed KFC to stay open provided they fix the pipe and correct the problem immediately.
Meanwhile as for the rodents, Gilan says it’s possible that they are seeking dry places because of the weather. Inspectors are not sure yet if the rodent problem is a long-standing problem or one that just began. In order to determine if the rodent problem is long standing inspectors need to find a nest or other similar evidence.
No rodent activities were observed at the other ten establishments but Gilan says they will be conducting regular sanitation inspections at the other ten establishments in the food court beginning today.
