I-Team: Inspections At Boston Food Trucks Reveal Some Serious Violations
BOSTON (CBS) - The i-Team recently dug into Boston's latest culinary craze: food trucks.
This comes as the mayor announces 15 new trucks will be rolled out onto city streets on Wednesday.
The orders fly out the window as the gooey cheese sandwiches sizzle on the grill. Grilled Cheese Nation is just one of the dozens of food trucks rolling through the city of Boston, satisfying the appetites of the crowds that line up outside.
"We're trying to change the perception of the old food trucks, the roach coaches of the past," said Todd Saunders, the CEO of FoodTruck Nation.
WBZ-TV's Kathy Curran reports.
Check: Full List of Inspection Reports (.pdf)
Grilled Cheese Nation gets a passing grade as city inspectors make the rounds to make sure there aren't any roaches or rodents on board and that the food served up doesn't make you sick.
The i-Team looked into inspection reports in the city over the past six months and found overall the trucks look pretty good, but some had serious violations.
When the violations are serious, the city suspends the food truck's license to operate. The i-Team has discovered three trucks have had their licenses suspended in the past six months. We found two of them on City Hall Plaza.
Inspector Tom McAdams said some of the worst ones he's seen are temperature-control issues, where the foods are not kept at proper temperature and someone could possibly get ill. That's what inspectors found at Clover Fast Food in February. Food wasn't being held at a hot-enough temperature, which means bacteria could grow. Employees were eating food in serving areas and they weren't storing food properly. Clover was hit with several critical violations.
Check: Clover Fast Food Inspection Report (.pdf)
Momogoose had a broken sink during one inspection and didn't provide sanitary hand cleaning and thermometers during another.
Check: Momogoose Inspection Report (.pdf)
At Ansovaro's Hot Dogs, the burgers weren't being held at a warm-enough temperature. Inspectors found dirty utensils, toxic cleaning supplies were stored above pots, pans and utensils and there was no hot water for months in their sink.
A report of salmonella surfaced at the award-winning King of Ribs truck in April.
Maurice Hill said he became extremely sick after eating ribs and all the fixings at M&M Ribs when he got home from a trip to the Bahamas, but Hill says he's never had any issues like this in his 29 years and wonders why no one else got sick.
Check: M&M Ribs Inspection Report (.pdf)
Inspectors didn't find any critical violations after the salmonella report and couldn't determine for sure if the person got sick from the food at M&M Ribs or from food he ate in the Bahamas. The food truck owners we spoke with say the Boston inspections are very rigid but they welcome that to keep the standards high.
All of the trucks that had violations have since fixed them and are back up to code.
