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Penn Dutch to permanently close Hollywood and Margate stores after inspectors find more listeria

South Florida Sun Sentinel - 9/18/2019

Sep. 18--Penn Dutch Meat and Seafood Market said it will permanently close its two stores after state inspectors found numerous areas contaminated with the listeria bacteria at the Margate store.

Customers found a closed store Tuesday, just two weeks after the company shuttered its Hollywood store for the second time since February after listeria was found there.

The Margate store will reopen Wednesday for a going-out-of-business sale, while the Hollywood location will remain closed permanently, company president Greg Salsburg said in an interview Tuesday.

A food safety inspection report obtained from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services lists 15 stop-sale and stop-use orders stemming from 13 positive tests for listeria monocytogenes found in a Sept. 9 inspection at the Penn Dutch at 3201 N. State Road 7 in Margate. The report observed the pathogen was found "in various areas as evidenced by environmental samples."

Inspectors found the bacteria in the seafood department, fish cooler, deli slicing room, chicken production room, ready cooler and deli, according to the report. Food in the contaminated areas was destroyed Tuesday as state inspectors watched, according to Cleon Cooper, administrator for the department's retail division.

Inspectors last tested food samples from the Margate store on Aug. 6. Six samples were collected and no listeria was found.

A Facebook post on Tuesday thanked loyal customers and said that while the Hollywood and Margate stores were closing, no decision has been made about a Sunrise store that the company had previously announced would open by the end of 2017.

"I'm very saddened by this news," said Jessica Malig in a comment. "I have a lot of fond memories shopping at Penn Dutch Hollywood as a kid. I now shop Penn Dutch Margate every week for the past 15 years. You will be truly missed."

Another urged the owners to fight, calling the decision to close "an easy way out. Look what [you're] doing to [your] employees. Come on, fix it. You have been in business long enough to be able to fix your buildings up the way that you need to."

In the interview, Salsburg said, "There's a very good possibility that this latest occurrence is going to drive the whole organization out of business," adding that the department's Sept. 9 test of the Margate store was "the most aggressive than [against] any other company I've even heard of. It's a witch hunt. It feels personal."

The Hollywood store at 3950 N. 28th Terrace was founded in 1975. About 150 employees have been laid off, along with some from the Margate store, Salsburg said.

"Unfortunately, more cuts are on the way," he said. "I'm torn up over our employees." About 300 people worked for the two stores before the Hollywood store closed.

On Sept. 4, the company voluntarily closed the Hollywood store after state inspectors found potentially "unsanitary conditions," a leaky roof, and listeria bacteria. Samples collected in the past month found widespread evidence of potentially harmful listeria bacteria around the store.

Salsburg addressed the closure in a Sept. 12 email to customers, saying the company didn't have a reopening date "at this time."

The episodes followed similar troubles at the Hollywood store in February and March. Evidence of listeria forced the company to halt some food processing operations and throw away 3,400 pounds of meat and poultry that also had been distributed to its Margate location. None of the tainted food was ever sold, Salsburg said.

Whether the listeria found in Margate was related to the findings in Hollywood remains to be seen following advanced testing of the samples' DNA that will take about a week, said Dr. Matthew Curran, the department's director of food safety.

"We are early in the process at the Margate store in diagnosing the conditions of the facility and completely assessing it. Information is still coming in," Curran said. "It's hard to say how long things will take in a situation like this. We need to establish where those pathogens came from."

Listeria bacteria can sprout in water from leaks and condensation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it can cause listeriosis, which it describes as a serious infection "most likely to sicken pregnant women and their newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems." About 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die, the CDC says.

Salsburg said he'll miss his employees and many customers if forced to close. "This whole business was formed on quality and trust," he said. "We are shocked. We are the most upset people in the whole scenario."

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