ORLANDO, Fla. — How clean and safe is the food at your grocery store?
Action 9 has been checking state records and found dozens of stores failed routine safety inspections.
Action 9's Todd Ulrich investigated some top offenders that failed more than once to find out if they've cleaned up their acts.
Inside Busy Bee Supermarket in Orange County, an inspector found potential food-safety violations.
[ Action 9 reviews grocery store inspection reports ]
Retired federal food inspector Paul Cook spotted rice, beef stew and empanadas at risky temperatures that could breed bacteria.
“(If I was doing an actual inspection) yeah, I would want that thrown out,” he said.
Busy Bee has failed two state inspections since 2014 and Cook said it could fail again.
He also saw an old tarp covering a food-storage bin, and a hole in the ceiling that would have prompted violations.
Inside a walk-in cooler, Cook saw raw meat stored above cooked sauces. There were also unprotected trays of food under crusty shelves.
“You have a dirty shelf above raw chicken uncovered, that's what I would write up,” Cook said.
He also warned the store about beef scraps for hamburger at unsafe temperatures and a sanitizing solution mixed so weak, he said it offered no protection.
Cook also spotted chemicals stored over a meat-processing machine and said that could be a real problem if something leaked.
“That could definitely make people ill from a chemical contamination,” he said.
Busy Bee store manager Jose Estevez told Action 9 the company is making several improvements to keep temperatures safe, including buying new coolers.
“If you see from last inspection, there have been lots of improvement here,” Estevez said.
Action 9 analyzed all grocery store state inspections since 2014, and found 27 area grocery stores failed two or more times.
Most violators were smaller grocers, but the Sedano's Supermarket on Curry Ford Road flunked four inspections in just two years.
According to the state reports, inspectors found 100 bags of insect-infested rice, and some bulging canned food that could be risky.
The inspector said all that food had to be thrown out.
Goodies Supermarket in Kissimmee flunked an inspection two months ago.
A store manager ended Action 9’s inspection after five minutes, but in that time Cook found empanadas at unsafe temperatures and a sanitizing solution that contained so much bleach, it could be toxic.
The inspector said the solution was so high it was off the charts.
A Goodies manager said the food was for display only and the solution was not used to sanitize.
Sedano's managers did not comment.