TAMPA - Mauricio Faedo's Bakery bakes up 3200 loaves of bread a day and easily serves more than 100 local restaurants and stores. But dealing with food safety inspectors has been anything but easy for the bakery on North Florida Avenue in Tampa.
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"Bad publicity from the state is a reflection on us which is unacceptable," said Jeff, who did not want to give us his last name. Jeff is Faedo's spokesperson and admits the last few years have been a challenge.
"It makes you feel horrible, because as much as you do, it's not an overnight process. It's something that takes time," Jeff admits.
In a special Dirty Dining investigation, we pulled the inspection reports of more than two dozen bay area bakeries over the last 2 years. We found that Faedo's earned 5 poor, 2 fair, and 1 good grade in their last 8 inspections.
A rating of good, fair, or poor can be earned on any report.
"Sometimes I guess you get a little guilty because our business operation is so large, that you're more focused on pushing out product and product and product and you forget about the little stuff that gets you in trouble with state inspections," Jeff said.
On their last full inspection on August 11, the state failed Faedo's and put the entire bakery under a stop use order due to the presence of insects and rodents including a dead mouse, rodent droppings behind equipment, flies throughout the bakery and weevils in the proofing boards and trays.
Another poor grade was issued the month before on July 25, when inspectors found rodent droppings in the storage room along with weevils and flies in the proofer boxes and flies in and around the mixer, implementing another stop use order on equipment.
"When you have a rodent problem like we did last year, it doesn't go away overnight. You have to be very delicate with all the pesticides and pest control and baiting systems that you use so that way it doesn't get into the customer's food," Jeff explained.
Jeff hired a new pest control company and believes the bakery's problems are in the past. But this is the third time we've exposed Faedo's for their unsanitary practices.
In October of 2010 a special Dirty Dining investigation showed inspectors documented rodent activity along with ants, roaches, and maggots.
And in November of 2009, we reported the state shut down the place for 24 hours because of other unsanitary conditions.
Jeff showed ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan improvements the bakery has made and says they're now diligent about enforcing important food safety rules for all workers.
"What are you doing with your employees that you didn't do a year ago?" Ryan asked.
"Constantly putting the pressure on the supervisors to be on top of the cleanliness in the bakery and making sure that you can't have any faults before the state shows back up again because you owe it to the customers that come here," Jeff said.
And Jeff has a message for their customers.
"We're committed to giving you 110% of the best cuban bread and products that you can buy from us. And we are going to try and stay on top of everything so you can continue to get the best product from us."
And things are already looking up. Faedo's earned a good grade in their last follow up inspection August 30th, after inspectors wrote "the firm has a new pest control company and no signs of rodents were present."
Faedo's wasn't the only bay area bakery to fail with the state in the last year.
Alessi Bakery on West Cypress Street in Tampa received 6 fair and 2 poor grades in their last 8 inspections by the Department of Agriculture.
On October 18 food safety inspectors scored Alessi with a fair grade, where the state found no critical violations in the preparation of food.
But a few months earlier on April 21, the state failed Alessi with a poor grade, after inspectors saw live german roaches on the wall, electrical panel and utensil room along with Asian meal moths and their webbing on the bakery's equipment.
The state issued a stop use order on the contaminated equipment for 20 days until the insects were gone and everything was cleaned and sanitized. A release order was given on May 10.
Also during that April visit, food safety inspectors found sandwiches, salads and devil crab rolls at improper temperatures.
And other critical violations have shown up on Alessi's other reports.
In June of 2010 inspectors issued a stop use order on unsanitary equipment after finding live meal moths and webbing on the kneeder machine along with old food residue.
And during the inspection before that, the report indicated all equipment had a build-up of old food, a german roach on the wall and an employee not washing his hands.
Over the phone I spoke with Alessi's general manager, Wes Wilson who said he's only been with the company for a few months but he's working to fix all the problems.
We also heard from Alessi's attorney, Richard Alvarez, who sent a
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