Market Inspection Interrupts Seders

With hours until sunset and relatives in town to celebrate the traditional Passover Seder, Eliat Levitan went to Valley Glatt Market on Wednesday to pick up last-minute items for the big holiday.

Instead, Levitan said, she found the market suddenly closed for a surprise health inspection.

“I was hysterical,” Levitan said. “I have to cook turkeys and a brisket.”

Store spokesmen said a Los Angeles County health inspector ordered them to halt sales about 11:15 a.m. for problems including storing boxes of meat on the floor, instead of in a refrigerator, and lack of hot water.

Several dozen customers complained, surrounding the inspector, said store manager Vadim Pinsky.

“They were shouting at him,” he said. “They were angry.”

But Michael Spear, director of district environmental services with the county Environmental Health Department, said the store was never ordered closed. Rather, he said, it was ordered to stop preparing food.

“A closure would involve suspension of their permit to operate until they corrected the health hazard,” Spear said. “In this case, the problem was corrected and there was no need for a closure.”

The problem, Spear said, “wasn’t with management. It was that some of the customers objected to our inspector being there.

“We inspect food facilities whether it’s the day before Passover or the day before Christmas,” Spear said. “We are trying to ensure a safe food supply.”