They've got the kind of problems that put the gross in grocery store. And ABC2 News Investigator Joce Sterman takes you aisle by aisle to see what's really happening in a popular Howard County supermarket.
Mice droppings on the shelves and expired food sitting out for sale. We found both of those things in just one trip to Lotte Plaza, after seeing those violations mentioned over and over in their inspection reports.
It’s a trend that's gotten this Ellicott City supermarket in super sized trouble with the Howard County Health Department over the last few years. We're going neighborhood by neighborhood, looking at places with the biggest number of violations and the consistent patterns we've seen in reports dating back to 2006.
According to those reports, roaches and rodents have the run of this place. The paperwork shows incidents where rodents showed up on the walls, in with the live crabs and a mouse was also seen running through the refrigerator. And it seems aisle five is the pests’ favorite destination.
The reports show critters crave the food there, gnawing through the packages to get to the good stuff and then leaving a few droppings when they leave. That's part of the reason this place was shut down by the health department back in 2007.
We wanted to ask management about their battle against the rodents and bugs that have caused them so much trouble. Because of a language barrier, we took ABC2 reporter Linda So along with us.
She’s fluent in Korean. When we asked about their efforts to stop the infestation issues, General Manager Charles Kim told us through our translator that they’re constantly working with a pest control company to control their rodent problem. He also showed us a file folder filled with treatment records that showed their efforts to stop the infestation.
Kim also told us their pest control company had just visited, but we found droppings all over the shelves in one aisle, simply by pushing the packages aside.
But that’s not the only problem. In the seafood section, we spotted several packs of fresh fish that were not-so-fresh, including one package that was weeks past its expiration date but still out for sale.
That's been a consistent problem too, with the inspectors tossing expired food on several visits and questioning management on their food safety practices after repeatedly seeing food repackaged or put out without a label at all. The manager told our translator, they understand the food safety rules and that whenever they get cited for something, they immediately work on resolving the issue.
He also let us know that they’re working closely with the health department to address all their concerns. But when the reports show one employee's way of figuring out what to throw out is by sniffing it, we smell an issue that will take Lotte Plaza a lot of work to resolve.
