AMHERST — Employees eating and drinking in food preparation areas, using the same sink for food and hand washing, and improperly sanitizing surfaces are among repeated health code violations that has forced the closure of Oriental Flavor, the Chinese restaurant at 25 South Pleasant St.

Even before the Board of Health voted 3-0 in favor of the suspension of the common victualler’s permit at a hearing Thursday, inspectors had closed the restaurant two days earlier on an emergency basis for a series of violations on nine separate occasions, and continued failure to get into compliance.

Sasha Clapp, a town inspector who uncovered the violations during an unannounced May 7 inspection, explained to the health board that 11 violations were related to how food is handled and prepared, with five additional violations related to other regulations. A reinspection a week later showed that 13 violations remained and, despite extensive work, the final visit on Oct. 9 still showed 10 violations, half related to food handling and preparation.

“The concern is we want to make sure the food served from the establishments in Amherst is safe for the public and we’re minimizing the risk of food-borne illness when we’re serving to the public,” Clapp said.

The restaurant, first opened on Merchants Row in July 2013 and expanded in early 2019, has previously been hit with fines from the state attorney general’s office for labor law violations.

Health Inspector Susan Malone said what the inspections department sees is a large number of gross and egregious practices. Violations are rare in Amherst, she said, and they have not been corrected, even after meeting with the building commissioner and having the owner hire a private consultant to get the business into compliance.

“None of these actions have been successful,” Malone said. “That’s what brings us to today.”

She noted the business has had problems previously. “This is not the first time we’ve seen these issues,” Malone said.

Cheng Hui Zheng, who runs the Oriental Flavor LLC with Ning Chen, offered an apology at the meeting and said he wants to remain part of the community.

“We are working very hard to improve them,” Cheng said. “We want to return to business.”

Cheng said he will have four people in charge. “We’ve been in the area for many, many years, and and we want to continue because local customers are always supporting us,” Cheng said.

On social media, Oriental Flavor posted a notice about its temporary closure “due to a scheduled health inspection. We are committed to ensuring the highest standards of food safety and cleanliness, and this inspection is part of our ongoing efforts to maintain these standards. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.”

Clapp explained that 11 inspections over five months gave the business sufficient time to correct the violations. Yet persons in charge have not demonstrated the knowledge and responsibility to do so, as problems with hand washing and glove use continue, such as not removing gloves that had been used to handle trash before preparing food. and repeated temperature violations with chicken not being stored at temperatures low enough, under 41 degrees.

One of her observations was of raw chicken being held over a plate of cooked rice that was ready to be served to a customer.

Clapp said a significant amount of education was done to promote compliance, such as how to prepare sanitizing solution and removing gloves after taking the trash out. But even the consultant hired to train food establishments on food safe practices continued to find food leaving the kitchen that was not safe for human consumption.

Clapp explained that violations require a scheduled return for reinspections.

“As result of the reinspections, we continued to find violations,” Clapp said. “We’ve required them to place new persons in charge at the establishment, and have found over the last several months no significant improvements in regards to food safety practices.”

Malone said if Cheng hires someone who is qualified and demonstrates, supervises and implements safe practices, then Oriental Flavor could reopen soon.

Health Board Chairwoman Risha Hess asked whether there might be a language barrier. “It does not feel like we had clear communication during this meeting, if there are steps to make sure that language and technology is not the barrier here,” Hess said.

Clapp, though, said an interpreter accompanied her during visits and a translation device also was used.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.