San Francisco grocery store temporarily closed due to rodent infestation

SAN FRANCISCO ( KRON ) — A grocery store in San Francisco’s Castro District was temporarily closed by the city due to a rodent infestation. Mollie Stone’s Castro Market on 18th Street was ordered closed Thursday by the San Francisco Department of Public Health due to a major rodent violation, according to a report that was dated June 27.

“This facility was found to have a rodent infestation,” the report states.

The market was issued with an immediate health permit suspension and closure after an inspection revealed rodent droppings and gnawed food items. Gnawed food items found at the market included multiple packages of tortillas, packages of bread, cookies, and chips. Rodent droppings, according to the report, were also found on top of single use containers for food sold to patrons in the deli/cheese area, shelving for bread, cookies, marshmallows, chips, and diapers.

Droppings were also found on top of the cold holding unit at the deli, under the weighing scales for cold cuts and on floors at the loading dock and warehouse. Additional droppings were found under the food prep sink at the warehouse, under shelves in the warehouse and along the side of the walk in the refrigeration unit.

Evidence of nesting was also found on the shelves for bread, condiments, cookies and cheese.

The market was ordered to hire a pest control service to identify pest entry points and to lay monitoring traps at pest entry points. The market was additionally ordered to remove all droppings and disinfect with bleach, and to provide door sweeps that seal the gap at the door from the loading dock to the retail area.

The market was also ordered to sanitize all retail shelves in the bread, chips, marshmallow, tortilla, cookie areas, and the deli/cheese retail area. Floors must also be disinfected and cleaned. Gnawed items, including tortillas, packages of bread, cookies, and packages of chips, were voluntarily discarded at the time of inspection, the report states.

The report ordered additional violations that included:

• No sanitizer in the butcher area
• Lack of hot water in the butcher area
• Food not labeled with discard time
• Deli hot plates that didn’t keep food at the minimum required temperature

There are nine Mollie Stone’s markets in the Bay Area. The Castro location is one of three in San Francisco. The report went on to order an additional inspection of the store before it could be reopened.

When KRON4 visited the location on Friday, it was open again. The SF Department of Health provided the following reasoning:

“The SFDPH Environmental Health Branch worked with the business to ensure corrective actions to Health Code violations were taken. After a reinspection this morning, June 28, SFDPH gave approval to reopen to the public at approximately 11:30AM.”

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