EHDP shuts down XO Market

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Environmental Health Disease Prevention—which is the new name of the old Bureau of Environmental Health—shut down the New XO Market on Middle Road last Oct. 4 due to violations of sanitization procedures.

EHDP shut down the market at 1:10pm last Sunday, with the inspection team finding violations that would not allow them to continue operations. However, as soon as the violations have been resolved the market will be able to resume operations. There was no immediate word if the store has already resolved the concerns or if it has already reopened.

According to a CHCC statement, the New XO Market, which is being operated by Long Feng Corp., was shut down for allegedly violating sanitation rules and regulations of Public Laws 11-40/12-48, which are regulations governing food and drug control, and the Commonwealth Environmental Health and Sanitation Act of 2000. The CHCC statement did not specify the alleged violations.

According to CHCC spokesperson Lee Tenorio, EHDP received a community complaint about the New XO Market establishment last Oct. 4 and that prompted the inspection of the establishment. As soon as EHDP inspected the facility, the staff confirmed that the concern was valid, and they identified other repeated violations in food safety standards. This prompted the EHDP inspection team to temporarily suspend the store’s operations until such time that the facility amends its deficiencies.

The CHCC statement said that EHDP stresses the importance of preventing foodborne illnesses, which may result from improperly processed, handled or transported food, that food service establishments must be concerned with the sound condition and safety of food as a basic requirement for the protection of public health.

“At all times, including while being stored, prepared, displayed, served, or transported, food shall be protected from potential contamination, including dust, insects, rodents, unclean equipment and utensils, unnecessary handling, coughs and sneezes, flooding, drainage, and overhead leakage or overhead drippage from condensation,” the CHCC statement said. “Food, if mishandled, can become contaminated with filth, pathogenic microorganisms, and toxic chemicals from a number of sources. Therefore, food protection measures are designed to protect food from being contaminated at all times within the establishment and also intended to prevent the rapid and progressive growth of disease-causing organisms that are naturally present in foods as well as those introduced through incidental contamination in the operation of a food service establishments.”