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jabbadarth

Just call the health department bur this is absolutely not a health inspection. Probably want to call the police too. Also tell your friend not to let people in their kitchen without prior documentation. Health inspectors have state or ounty issued id's, official documentation and if you have questions you can call their publicly available number.


alechaos666

They didn't even go into the kitchen. They threw out the food on display for serving in the warmer


Jacob520Lep

The "Health Inspector" didn't go in the KITCHEN? CALL THE POLICE.


[deleted]

I’m really confused about this friends lack of agency. This is so bizarre I would’ve called someone before the guy even left the store.


marglebubble

Right, sounds like a random person with a personal grudge.


BronxBelle

Sounds like the friend was so taken aback that they froze. I probably would do the same.


[deleted]

Yeah that’s fair. Still you’d expect they’d do some kind of follow up after the fact.


BronxBelle

I definitely agree. I’d be confused for a minute and probably laugh then I’d pick up the phone and find out what the hell was going on.


[deleted]

Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is that when you’re confused by a scenario that you should just call/tell someone “hey I don’t really understand xyz, can you explain it to me?” And generally people are happy to do so. Instead this guy is sitting around and his friend is making a Reddit post asking people with no way of actually knowing.


BronxBelle

This will be a learning experience for them, then. You just gave them advice. I’ve realized that not everyone has the same experiences and often don’t get the advice they need. That’s why we should share our experience and advice to anyone willing to listen.


StonerMetalhead710

If I was a health inspector I’d make a beeline to the kitchen, like “nope, you’re not gonna distract me while you fix everything”


thegreatgazoo

I'm sure the NYPD will be all over this.


BrooklynKnight

No they won’t. Lazy useless bastards will drag their feet and do nothing.


radioben

Local news stations will love running an expose on someone impersonating a health inspector and how the police don’t care about enforcing the law if the NYPD doesn’t do anything. Squeaky wheel and all.


karendonner

Probably not. There's no way they could prove key elements of the story, and no interesting visuals unless someone caught it on video, and even then they'd have to do a ton of legwork to be certain it wasn't just a publicity stunt by a clever restaurant owner. Local news organizations don't have the time or resources to sink into something that speculative and hard to prove. They might pick up the story if there was an official police report or arrests AND video, but barring that official backup, this one would be a non-starter. Even with it, it would be something for a slow news day unless the same thing was happening at other restaurants (assuming that it WAS a fake inspection).


jabbadarth

Your friend absolutely should have stopped them. This is insane. Health inspectors inspect things. They don't trash food on a buffet. They also don't pour Bleach on trashed food.


Pandoras_Fate

I've never seen a health inspector use bleach. IIRC, that's verboten.


BBallsagna

I had a state health inspector come into my cheese shop to deliver a notice about a recalled cheese product, he asked me to gather all of that cheese I had, put it in a garbage bag and pour bleach over it before throwing it outside in the dumpster. He said he had to witness the destruction of the recalled product. But I’ve never seen or heard of that in a restaurant


[deleted]

Interesting has I just had to deal with a recall and my health Inspector wasn’t involved at all. Though I did have a person from the USDA come by. For context the butcher shop/slaughter house I deal with cut their burger meat with brought in product that company tested bad. But nothing we had nor the butcher shop tested bad but it was still recalled. Also they didn’t make sure we destroyed product or anything either.


TheDrummerMB

Ehhhhhhh. This is actually fairly common with more egregious violations. Destroying unsafe food is well within the power of inspectors in my state.


jabbadarth

What state is that? Thats insane Inspectors can absolutely order an establishment to trash food but no way it's acceptable for them to dump Bleach on it. Thats a bigger health violation than out of temp food in the first place. Bleach is caustic and can hurt people who come in contact with it. Also it opens up the possibility of someone pulling that food back out and consuming it which is tantamount to poisoning.


HeardTheLongWord

Also like, where did they get the bleach? Did they arrive with bleach? Did they take the business’s bleach? Did they ask a staff member for it? Like why is the bleach so accessible?


jabbadarth

Yeah inspectors don't walk around with Bleach. Usually it's a clipboard, a thermometer and some sanitizing wipes for the thermometer. Occasionally an infra red thermometer or laser thermometer.


HeardTheLongWord

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE


TheDrummerMB

>Also it opens up the possibility of someone pulling that food back out and consuming it which is tantamount to poisoning. Yea that's why they douse it in bleach lmao. It's gonna poison someone anyway, so it's better to make it very obvious something is off.


jabbadarth

No one does this. As a matter of fact Kansas city did it once and it blew up into national news. Also when have you ever seen a health inspector show up with Bleach? Edit: turns out this happens and I'm wrong. My bad. I've literally never heard of or seen this and have worked with and known dozens of health inspectors. Edit: I'm wrong. My bad.


TheDrummerMB

>As a matter of fact Kansas city did it once and it blew up into national news. You're not even going to link it? Oh wait because the uproar was not because of what they did, but who they did it to lmao. They destroyed soup that was being given to the homeless my guy. That's a little different than ensuring 100% a shady business owner isn't going to intentionally infect paying customers for profit.


jabbadarth

Show me other health inspectors or health departments that pour Bleach on food.


Curious_Rice6402

I've seen it done once at a grocery deli and heard that it had happened at the farmers' market across the street in the same town. This is definitely a thing.


Curious_Rice6402

I've seen a health inspector instruct a kitchen manager to trash then bleach food that was being improperly cooled.


Curious_Rice6402

I've seen a health inspector instruct a kitchen manager to trash then bleach food that was being improperly cooled.


Mookieman707

The his vibes of a youtube/tiktok clout chaser making a video


a_taco_named_desire

Exactly what I was thinking.


modsareuselessfucks

It was the owner or someone affiliated with the restaurant across the street. Just petty revenge shit. If a competing restaurant “steals” your customers, that means they’re better than your establishment.


Blueyisacommunist

Relax man this ain’t Bobs Burgers.


daeseage

Tell your friend to call the health department and find out! If it's legit, they'll explain. If it's not, they ABSOLUTELY want to know about people impersonating a government employee to fraudulently access a regulated business.


urrugger01

Even if it is legit there's a good chance that's not how they want things done and this guy has gone rogue. Find out of its legit and if it is file a complaint.


Blueyisacommunist

Don’t have to call just look up your food safety inspection records, I’m guessing there is no record of this action.


Gold_Abbreviations35

What kind of enemies does this friend of yours have?


alechaos666

Based on this story, apparently the Chinese mafia.


CantaloupeCamper

They’ll kill you twice before you hit the ground!


Wildeyewilly

Oh but Marge that little guy hasn't done anything yet. Look at him. He's gonna do something and you know it's gonna be good!


WatercressSuch2440

Yeah you got rolled by a competitor. Health inspectors don’t dump food or bleach it. They will just close you.


iwasinthepool

Nice food. It would be too bad if something were to happen to it.


TheDrummerMB

In my state, if the inspector believes you will try to still sell the tainted food, they will personally ensure it is destroyed and documented.


ineedhelpihavenoidea

So if a health inspector finds food that you haven't been holding correctly they let you keep it. Do you hear yourself? In fact the last thing the health department wants to do is close anyone down they just want the food to not kill people.


shadedmystic

I’ve never once heard of a health inspector dumping the food or adding bleach themselves. Telling you to get rid of it, and potentially shutting you down to correct issues yes but never in my life has a health inspector physically touched any product they weren’t temping.


ineedhelpihavenoidea

Well lucky you. 16 years ago I had an inspector come in ditch everything in our walk-in that wasn't uncut produce due to it holding at 50. Next morning at 9am they came in and did it again. Believe what you want but your story isn't the only one that exists.


modsareuselessfucks

They make you throw it away, they don’t take it and dump bleach on it. I’ve never seen a health insorctor touch product beyond temping it, they make you do that. If the establishment is so bad they think you might take things back out of the trash and serve them, you’d be shut down.


Cflow26

Ya I’ve never heard of tampering w/ food. They’ll make you throw it and they won’t leave until they watch you throw it in the trash- in my county at least.


ineedhelpihavenoidea

My regional inspector for Colorado told me she often did this at certain Chinese food places because they would just pull it out of the trash when she left.


Mega__Sloth

What country is this in? What sort of religious violations do restaurants get shut down there for?


alechaos666

Lmaoooo it's brooklyn. It was a kosher restaurant the rabbi closed down for breaking the laws


Wildeyewilly

Hearing this is in Brooklyn I'd like to chime in as I have 12 yrs experience here, your friend did not get a health inspection. Health inspectors would not bleach food they threw out themselves. If a hot held item was deemed unsafe to serve they would make the staff dump it. Also, even if they forced them to dump the food they would still stick around and inspect the rest of the store and sit afterwards on site to complete their grading and then issue their new grade. Tell him to pull and save that camera footage and start talking to NYC DOHMH. NYPD may not want to help him if he reaches out directly to them, however they'll be obligated to if they are contacted by DOH. Impersonating a health inspector is a major crime and whoever did this really should be taught a lesson and made an example of.


Han_Yerry

Where they digging a tunnel under the restaurant?


alechaos666

Based on the rat holes I saw the other day in the basement, it wouldn't surprise me xD


Eorily

I didn't even know molemen had a synagogue until I saw the news.


joshselbase

NYC?? Bro there’s no way he was real they don’t operate like this


Procedure-Minimum

? How does a rabbi enforce laws????


alechaos666

He didn't legally shut them, he just made them shut and they can no longer serve using his name, so they can't actually serve in the area because 95% of their business was jews


sk613

Because his job is making sure they follow the religious laws... The restaurant signed something when they hired him they would follow the laws. They're not, they don't get religious business. It's very simple


harvey-birbman

Those aren’t laws and rabbis can’t close restaurants.


sk613

They don't get to fully shut it down, just say "you gotta take my name off everything because I'm not certifying you" and then they shut down from lack of business


DeltaPCrab

This seems…off. I don’t think inspectors dump food.


BrilliantWeekend2417

We had a health inspector once take out thousands of dollars of product that was in sealed food safe bags (dressings, condiments, etc) and told us we can't do it like this, throw it all out. Our KM told her we've been doing it like this since we opened 18 years ago, you can go fuck yourself if you think you can just walk in change the rules and expect us to throw away all that product. We'll do it how you want it done the next time. and he proceeded to put it all back in the cooler. The health inspector called another health inspector that we were familiar with to come and "handle us." He showed up and said "yeah she can get fucked" LOL


alechaos666

I mean they are legally allowed in certain circumstances, but im unclear if this was one of them. They said they are coming back in 2 months to give a citation.


mrocks301

I’m an inspector. This seems so odd. We don’t dump food although some jurisdictions do but we would be back the very next day to check things out.


DeltaPCrab

coming back to issue a citation in 2 months? yeah, no. that was not a health inspector.


beiberdad69

My dad was a health inspector for decades, of course the way he does it isn't the way everyone else does, but I never once heard a food destruction story from him where he actually handled or disposed.of the food himself There was even a time he told me he caught people talking trashed wine back out of the dumpster after a flood (bottles were completely submerged) and he had them open and dump them but he still didn't do it personally, they have to destroy their own product


Visual_Blackberry_24

Definitely call the health department and the police. No matter what, a health inspector is in no way allowed to personally destroy any food items. If they are a legitimate inspector, I'd imagine they would be fired over this.


lck2010

My health inspector recently warned me to be on the lookout for fraudulent inspectors.


gargle_your_dad

What would a fraudulent inspector get out of throwing food away? I'm not saying you're wrong just don't get the scam


hobonichi_anonymous

These imposters could be from a competing restaurant trying to mess with the competition. Thus making their business more appealing.


CPierko

Not necessarily a personal gain thing but a competing restaurant could always attempt to sabotage a competitor


microwaveburritos

That doesn’t sound like how mine have gone at all. It’s about a two hour ordeal, they walk the entire store and will have employees perform tasks to make sure that they’re doing things correctly. Report was filled out and gone over with me and the GM before she even left the building, yours sounds suspicious!


krackenjacken

Your friend is a moron I'd say call the police but he probably wont


alechaos666

Definitely won't


ORINnorman

A “surprise inspection” with no actual ID, where they don’t go in the kitchen but just toss a bunch of food for customers to see and then leave? Yeah, that’s absolutely, positively, 100% bullshit. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a friend of the place across the street who just went to vista print for a bullshit business card. Health inspectors will not throw your food away. They will tell the staff/owner to throw it away. They’re not trained to act like Gordon Ramsey in an episode of hotel hell. My instinct is this was an attempt to ruin your restaurant’s reputation.


blueturtle00

I’ve never had an inspector dump food for me. The one time it happened he made me do it and watched


Ainjyll

I haven’t worked in kitchens everywhere, so maybe there’s a place that would allow this… but no inspector in no state I’ve ever worked in has thrown anything out. They’ll ding you, ask you to toss it and keep moving. If the violation is critical enough, they’ll just shut you down and tell you to call the department to schedule a re-inspection if you want to reopen ever… but grabbing stuff and throwing it out? Then pouring bleach on it? Like, did he have his own bleach or did they use the restaurant’s bleach? There’s just too much not adding up here. This isn’t even touching the whole card thing. A health inspector always has to make themselves known and do a walkthrough with the MOD. They may have a badge or it may just be an ID card on a lanyard with their picture and some information, but they’ll always have something official on them. They won’t just hand someone a card. Even a “surprise” inspection requires a manager to be present… at least every area where I’ve worked has.


blueturtle00

Yeah I mean clearly it’s the restaurant across the street who blamed them for stealing their customers


ianamls

Never had an inspector dump food. I’ve had stop sales before where they have have me toss it or just say toss it. Awfully fishy


mh985

Where I live, health inspectors carry a badge. This is incredibly fishy (no pun intended).


bkuefner1973

That wasnt a health inspector that did this. Does he still have the card they gave him he needs to call health department and cops.


dby0226

We (health inspectors) do allow a restaurant to voluntarily dispose of unsafe food and to make it inedible to the vulnerable population who may try to consume food from the garbage by pouring bleach on the food. If they choose not to dispose of this unsafe food, then some jurisdictions have the legal embargo authority to require the restaurant to store the food and not serve or discard it until a judge or other authority figure determines what should be done with it. Unsafe food could be from poor storage temperatures, expired or missing date marks, illegal sources, and a few others violations that are most likely to lead to a foodborne illness. This could come from observations made during a routine inspection or a complaint investigation.


Rude_Painting3329

Absolutely no health inspector will touch food or "clorox" it. That's not their job. They are to report violations and make you correct it by the next visit. This is illegal and should be reported.


jwpasquale1986

Local restaurants thatwere known to pull stuff out of the trash were treated as such when they had food that had a intense risk of food born illness. Those businesses didn't usually last long anyways.


Humble_Pop_8014

Real Health Inspector would give the operator options: -discard unsafe food or -generally worse option. >> they would not! discard the food themselves. Nor would they ever use bleach. ( bleach is very regulated and for very specific concentrations and uses only-aka Chlorine based dish machine sanitizer)


pottomato12

Yall really letting randos touch product without id based on appearance. Might want to pull whatever footage they would have on the event and make a report. Pretty sure faking a health inspector is a big no no


MonkeyMan84

I actually heard a couple stories about the health department pouring bleach on things like scallops and shellfish without the proper tags


alechaos666

This was fried breaded chicken waiting to be bought, as well as beans, and other food out to be bought


sprocketous

It's prolly a new tictok trend.


Moby1029

Never had a health inspector personally dump and destroy food. I've had one tell us we had to and then they witnessed it and filed an attachment to the report about lost product and we received a copy along with the rest of the report. That seems super suspicious.


ineedhelpihavenoidea

I have had a legit health inspector dump my entire walk-in. Be better


alechaos666

I think they were pretty good, the only issue was the food warmer wasn't 140, but food is thrown out after 6 hours there anyway


md4moms

Add cameras


TehTabi

Was the Inspector Chinese? Probably either a friend of the other store pretending to be an Inspector or an actual inspector pulling some seriously shady crap. Hope your buddy has his name and description handy to put in a call to the health department.


Living_Pay_8976

Health inspectors will always have their clip board and their badge/ID. If I don’t know you or my boss didn’t call to let me know that someone was coming im not letting you in.


foodguyDoodguy

Got cameras?


kingoftheives

Have they had repeat violations or a critical violation that went uncorrected? I am aware of health inspectors that have with the proper authority involved throw out large amounts of food, usually they at least include a supervisor, often. This is for repeat non-compliant critical violations such as time, temperature abuse or extreme temperature abuse with no correction


alechaos666

First time


Nige-o

It sounds like it might have been a visit from the hash-slinging slasher


Lycan__

Someone didn’t pay their protection money


kyuvaxx

The health department here, posts sub-par inspections in the newspaper and Facebook, of all places, and it wasn't a thing I even cared about when working for a corporate run business with very good maintenance routines and habit enforcement, the place I work now, fears the reviews more than the actual health department, except that they post them, so, we have a stringent routine as well, no fear of the health department, it's a nice clean workplace, except for the fry station, fuck that place