I-Team

MIAMI (CBS4) ― A CBS4 I-Team investigation has revealed critical food safety violations found by state inspectors at some local school cafeterias that are intentionally being hidden from parents.

CBS4 Consumer Investigator Al Sunshine found local school systems may be breaking state and federal laws.

Schools don't want you to see state health inspection reports regarding the inside their cafeterias. In some cases they are finding potentially serious food safety problems. Health inspectors told CBS4 that some of the problems can definitely make kids sick.

David Hernandez said he usually likes the cafeteria's food inside North Twin Lakes Elementary, but the Hialeah 5th grader says every now and then, "Like sometimes they're doing their cooking and the hair it comes out and stuff in the food."

So how are school cafeterias really doing behind the kitchen doors?

To get the answer the CBS4 I-Team followed a local health inspectors for several days as they checked out local schools.  The only way for parents to know how the cafeterias are doing is to check out their health reports.

But that can be nearly impossible.

By federal law, public schools are required to visibly post their latest health inspection reports so anyone can know about the sanitation inside the school kitchen.  They're also required by federal law to make those reports available to anybody who asks for them.

When CBS4 went inside North Twin Lakes Elementary School and asked to see their inspection report, the administration slammed the gates on us and wouldn't let us in.

Not only did the school not provide us a copy of the inspection report, they ordered the I-Team off the property.

So what didn't the school system want us to see?

"It was an unsatisfactory report," said Samir Elmir of the Miami-Dade County Health Department.

Inspectors found a cafeteria refrigerator not cold enough to prevent possible food spoilage.

"If you don't hold the proper temperature, you accelerate the process of food spoilage," said Elmir.

Inspectors also found two "code38" violations, which are vermin control problems.

Local inspectors said they've been finding lots of code 38 violations inside some Miami-Dade school cafeterias.

"Airbase Elementary, for example, American Senior High for example, Arcola Lakes, Arvida Middle, Barbara Hopkins Elementary, Bel Aire Elementary," said Miami Dade Health Department inspector Trevor Cook.

The September 19th inspection report for Miami Carol City Senior High didn't do too well either.

"We observed fresh rat droppings throughout the facility," said Cook.

Cook said when he personally checked out the school just a few weeks ago, the sanitation levels were very low.

"These type of violations, which includes the rodents and the roaches, could cause a severe threat to the health and safety of anyone who eats from those kitchens," said Cook.

"We recommended that the kitchen be closed. And it was closed".

It wasn't the only one; Miami Edison Middle School's cafeteria was ordered closed last November after inspectors found it overrun with rats, mice and roaches.

"There were fresh droppings in the kitchen," said Cook

The health department  said both schools have since cleaned up their cafeterias and reopened them.  

What about Broward schools?

While inside the office of Dania's Olsen Middle School, the I-Team found no sign of any inspection reports. Before Broward health inspector John Thompson even finished checking out the school's cafeteria, the I-Team was once again escorted off the property by school police.

So what did Thompson find inside? A "satisfactory" cafeteria with just some minor violations. But because health inspections were not posted, parents have no way of knowing this school was doing a good job.

Miami Lakes parent Robert Albacete said he definitely wants to know what's going on inside his 2nd grader's school cafeteria and why it failed its recent health inspection.

"It's actually raising a red flag right now and actually the first thing I am going to do is investigate that," said Albacete.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a national food safety watchdog group, recently evaluated 20 school sanitation programs across the country including San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia and Chicago, and Miami-Dade, calling Miami-Dade's school system, "one of the worst performing school jurisdictions".

Miami-Dade came in near the bottom of the group at number 17 with only Rhode Island, Washington, D.C. and Hartford, Connecticut getting lower ratings.

And what about those violations at North Twin Lakes Elementary School that Miami Dade Health Inspectors found?

When inspectors went back to follow-up on the earlier violations they found, the problems were all fixed according to the Miami -Dade Health Department and it got a satisfactory report.

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