Restaurant Inspections: Pho Ha Linh Vietnamese Noodles & Grill Cited for 10 Health Code Violations

The Prince William Health District cited Pho Ha Linh Vietnamese Noodles & Grill for 10 violations ranging from sanitary issues to the improper storage of food.

The restaurant, located at 7535 Somerset Crossing Drive in Gainesville, was inspected July 10; five critical and five noncritical violations were reported.

According to the Health District report, the critical violations include:

Critical (Corrected During Inspection): Employees or applicants are not aware of the reporting procedures concerning information about their health and activities as they relate to diseases that are transmissible through food, including the date of onset of jaundice or of an illness due to Salmonella Typhi, Shigella spp., Escherichia coli O157:H7, Hepatitis A virus or Norovirus.

Critical (Corrected During Inspection): The raw animal food in the walk-in cooler was stored in a manner that may cause cross contamination of to ready-to-eat food (RTE).

Critical (Corrected During Inspection): Chef's knife was not observed sanitized before use.

Critical (Corrected During Inspection): Cutting boards used to prepare/store potentially hazardous food items were observed soiled with accumulations of food residues.

Critical (Corrected During Inspection): The plastic 5 gallon pail labeled laundry soap is not safe to use for food storage. Uncooked rice in pail.

Other non-critical violations included:

• (Corrected During Inspection): Employee dietary supplement stored in such a way that may contaminate food items.
• Repeat: Food stored less than 6" above the floor in the walk-in freezer.
• Rice scoops not properly stored between uses.
• Repeat: The compartments of the 3-vat sink are not large enough to accommodate the largest piece of equipment.
• Folded lounge chair in storage area.

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“Restaurant inspections are normally scheduled for one to four inspections per year, depending on the complexity of the menu, how much food is made from raw products, and how much is made in advance rather than cooked-to-order,” the agency states on their website.

When violations are observed during a routine inspection, they are detailed in a report and classified as either critical (posing a direct or immediate threat to consumers) or non-critical (a failure of cleaning or maintenance), the agency said.

These inspections are considered by the Health District as a snapshot of a specific day of operation.

According to the agency: “Ideally, an operation would have no critical violations, or none which are not corrected immediately and not repeated. In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations.”