Restaurant inspection: Food safety compromised at a Thumb’s Up Diner

At a Thumbs Up Diner in East Point, raw meats and other food items were not being protected from contamination during a recent routine inspection.

Points were taken off because raw salmon in a walk-in cooler was more than 10 degrees higher than the maximum temperature for food safety.

Also raw pork chops were thawing in standing water at the prep sink. Steak and other meats were thawing under the food prep table near the washing area, according to the inspection report.

Other raw salmon was stored above green bell peppers inside a walk-in cooler.

Thumbs Up Diner, 1617 White Way, East Point, failed the inspection with a 51/U. Previous scores were 84/B and 82/B.

The Fulton County health inspector said the restaurant failed to provide active managerial control over food safety.

Among other code violations, an employee did not wash hands after loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher then handling clean dishes.

Two employee hand-sinks had buckets for sanitizing solution stored inside, making them inaccessible for washing hands. Bottles of glass cleaner were stored next to clean drinking glasses. And a bottle of perfume was in the dry storage area next to canned goods.

Points were also taken off because foil was being used to line all the equipment at the cook-line and inside the reach-in coolers. There was heavy food debris on all of the gaskets in the coolers, and date-mark stickers were still intact on the outside of clean containers.

The restaurant was also late in paying its annual fee for a food service permit.

Thumbs Up Diner will be re-inspected.