04G — Unprotected potentially hazardous food re-served
This means re-serving food that can spoil (cooked or prepped food) after it already went out to a customer — for example pouring a returned bowl of rice back into the pan, or reusing a sauce ramekin. Once food leaves the kitchen it has been exposed to other people's germs, so it can make the next guest sick. The inspector watches the pass and the bus station for this and asks staff what happens to table returns. Only sealed, untouched items (a wrapped cracker, an unopened bottle) may be reused.
What the inspector looks for
Watch what comes back from dining tables: cooked rice, fries, sauces, soups, garnishes. Food that already went out to a customer must be thrown away, never sent back out to another table. Reusing it fails.
Points & grade impact
Cited at 10 points — Cited at 10 (condition V); uncorrected PHH → 28. NYC adds every cited violation’s points into one inspection score: 0–13 = A, 14–27 = B, 28+ = C.
How to fix it
Stop re-serving food; discard any previously served PHF.
How to prevent it
Never re-serve PHF or other unprotected food that has left the kitchen; discard table returns; only individually wrapped, unopened items may be reused where permitted.
- ✓Make the rule simple for every server: if it left the kitchen, it gets thrown out, never re-plated or topped off.
- ✓Bus returned food straight into the trash or a bus tub, not back onto the line or into a fresh pan.
- ✓Only put out condiments that are individually wrapped or in containers that get washed and sanitized between guests.
- ✓Plate and portion to order so there is less leftover food to be tempted to reuse.
Reference: Health Code §81.07(l)
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