Major New York challah maker plagued by vermin

NEW YORK (JTA) — Zomick’s Bakery, a popular supplier of challah throughout the New York metropolitan area, reportedly has failed 10 of its last 17 inspections because of pest problems.

Inspectors from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets have found cockroaches, beetles, mice, and birds flying and crawling around the facility on Long Island, according to a report on Thursday in the Five Towns Patch.

On Feb. 28, the Inwood facility passed inspection for the first time since July 2011. However, on Oct. 4, 2012, inspectors seized and destroyed 13 50-pound bags of cornmeal that were infested with beetles, the Patch reported.

The inspectors noted that on July 10, 2012, “40-50 live cockroaches, adults and nymphs, were observed in and around the crevices of wheels on a work table in the cookie baking area” of the warehouse, which opened in 2006.

According to a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Markets, removing Zomick’s license would require four or more consecutive failing inspections.

The closest Zomick’s has come to having its license removed was in 2006, when it failed three consecutive inspections.

Zomick’s has passed two consecutive inspections twice, but never three times. The inspectors will return to the facility in August.

A company employee answering the phone for Zomick’s manager told JTA that the bakery passed its most recent inspection and is now clean.
“We have had an issue in the past and as of now it has been corrected,” said the employee, who declined to be identified.