This afternoon the Public Health Department swooped down on a Bakery at the end of Mahogany Street in Belize City. We got there around 1:00 - just as they were finishing up - and here's what we found:..
Jules Vasquez reporting
Isaray Bakery on Mahogany Street was closed down today and the public health department hopes it will stay that way for good.
These are the rat bitten pieces of bread that were taken from the bakery and the punctured plastic bags. The moldy bread that was found inside the dirty looking mixing bowls and packs of breads that were on the shelf for sale.
We stole a chance to go inside the bakery where we saw this sack with dog stool in it right outside the bakery while inside was filthy - but before we could get a good look we were escorted out - the smell of dog stool very strong in the area.
It's a smell a neighbor who asked to appear off camera is familiar with:
VOICE OF: NEIGHBOR TO THE BAKERY
"I really don't know how they can give these people license to sell food, because if you would stop by in the evenings and check behind the bakery, there are lots of roaches "like crazy". The place is messed up by the dogs, it's like they don't even washout the area where the dogs are. When you stand there in the mornings to by a bottle of water and you haven't had breakfast the smell would throw off your entire day, because it's a bad smell that's coming from in there. I don't know what they eat or what they cook at the back. Every evening you can take look at the back and you will see the amount of roaches crawling up the walls back there, it looks like they don't have any kind of hygiene to washout the area or clean up the dog mess, they don't do any of that, the police had to force them to open the gate, because they didn't want to open the gate, and they sell all kinds of groceries, they are supposed to check those things."
And to make sure the bakery closes down for good, public health went back and took all the baking molds this afternoon. We know all the baking hardware - minus the ovens - were confiscated - and so was all the bread.
Despite numerous phone calls, we could not reach senior staff at the public health office to find out if they will be bringing charges against the owners.
We also asked the owners for comment but they shut the steel door in our faces.
