September health code inspections: 5 found out of compliance in Lawrence

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The Journal-World is bringing back a longstanding report about health code inspections for local businesses and organizations.

With this article, I will begin reporting the state’s restaurant inspection results for our readers on a monthly basis.

The Journal-World previously stopped reporting on the listed violations because of a malfunction in the system that incorrectly named businesses. Heather Lansdowne, Kansas Department of Agriculture communications director, said Monday that the malfunction was fixed in 2017.

In September, state officials inspected several school facilities, KU fraternities and sororities, grocery stores and restaurants.

Each month, I will take a look at inspection results and list every place either listed out of compliance or with 10 or more code violations. Full reports are available online at agriculture.ks.gov.

There you can find details about specific violations, which can vary. Noncritical citations include unlabeled products, improperly stored cleaning materials, minor plumbing issues and more. Critical violations include cross-contamination of raw and cooked foods, insect and rodent issues, unclean food preparation areas and more.

Some violations may be corrected during the inspection, while others take longer to fix and require follow-up inspections.

All businesses, even those listed out of compliance, met the basic requirements to safely remain open, unless otherwise noted.

With this regular report I try to provide basic information about food inspections in Douglas County. But because of the sheer volume of inspections, it’s difficult to offer detailed information about each establishment.

Here are Douglas County restaurant inspection results for September:

• Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, 1537 Tennessee St., last had a routine inspection Sept. 27, and one violation was found. The fraternity is currently listed as out of compliance.

• The Sandbar, 17 E. Eighth St., last had a routine inspection on Sept. 26, and six violations were found. The bar is currently listed as out of compliance.

• Lark A Fare, 900 New Hampshire St., last had a routine inspection on Sept. 19 and seven violations were found. The restaurant is currently listed as out of compliance.

• The Baldwin City Market, 112 N. Eighth St., Baldwin City, had a follow-up inspection on Sept. 17 and found violations. The grocery store is currently listed as out of compliance.

• University Inn-Lawrence, 2309 Iowa St., had a compliance inspection on Sept. 12 and found 21 violations. The hotel is currently listed as out of compliance.

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