This is outrageous! What a way to be treated by your own town bakery. Just chucked all the bread I had bought there a couple of days ago. I won't be back after they reopen. Will buy my bread from now on at Mount Hope Farmers Market every Saturday morning.

So disappointing...have been buying bread there for a while now. Many area shops & restaurants also carry their products so I hope they take everything off the shelves immediately.

eliminate pests by a licensed pest control operator?? OMG!!! My imagination just ran away with me! I wonder if these pests, and their excrement were baked into our delicious breads....ugh!
I think I'm going to be sick!

I'd like to see the report and the owners side, before making any judgements - I have no faith in any government agency in doing anything right. "have all pests eliminated by a licensed pest control operator" could be anything from a major infestation to seeing an ant on the counter.

Unfortunately these numerous violations recorded by the Health Department have been going on for many years. It's a shame that this business was not closed years ago when the owner never seemed to correct any of the problems. The retail area appears to be clean and well maintined but it is what goes on behind closed doors that matters the most and all was not well there for sure. I can't imagine anyone running a food business would allow such outrageous and unsanitary practices to occur knowing that customers could become sick and possibly die as a result of eating these products. How can anyone patronize this business again? A trusting customer no more. Richard

This bakery, while not as good as Seven Stars in Providence, is in my opinion the best in Bristol and Aquidneck. Living most of my life in NYC, I have known some great bakery's and was thrilled that we had a great bakery here in Bristol, my new home. This news is shocking and disappointing, what a shame.

Didn't anyone notice the bread is outside on the sidewalk to cool off everyday. How many flies were on your bread before you ate it. If you saw it on the news you could still see the racks outside. Yummy

I suggest that everyone go to the Department of Health website listed in the article and do the advanced search using zipcode 02809 as the filter....I mean really why vilify one establishment when nearly every restaurant, bakery, and supermarket has violations in this town. Now I see why dining in is the new dining out!

It was surprising and disappointing to see the violations go back a few years. I hope they correct them soon and reopen, although I know it will be difficult to rebound from such bad publicity. Perhaps the wholesale end of the business got too large but that's still no excuse. It is unfortunate there are no local bakeries that offer the variety of breads on a daily basis other than white bread, such as wheat, oatmeal, rye, pump.,etc...

Who is the owner, or person responsable for the violations?

Remembering what happened with the employee on 103, they changed the name to Audry's I think. Don't recall the original name, but it was a great butcher shop. One employee ruined tha place because he had Hepatitis and got the place closed, and De'Angelo's in Seekonk that he also worked at. The butcher shop never recovered even under new management and new name it closed shop.

Also recall a chinese reasturant, that was serving recooked day old rice etc, that closed last year I think. The bottom line is management. The amount of people and medical damage that can result from something like this, can spread like wild fire in a small area such as this especially in children and the elderly and yes death is in that equation. Won't go into the types of problems because it is not a pretty picture and pretty gross and scary also.

I doubt this place will recover either, it is a shame to see a local business put itself out of business. Hopefully these are not serious enough to cause that. However the public should know exactly hat they are and how the owner corrected them. Hopefully the owner will adress that in a letter in the paper and maybe it can continue.

The name of the business on Rt. 103 was Rudy's. Unfortunately, there are many serious violations that go undetected because there are not enough health inspectors to go around to all the places that provide food to the general public. In the case of Bristol Bakery, the violations stretched out over serveral years which is unacceptable.

Thanks Richard I could not remember it for the life of me, I use to by a lot of meat there. I read the charges on channel 12 earlyer.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/east_bay/bristol-bakery-closed-for-health-violations

"Inspectors found that bread was placed on metal racks that had been left outside and perched on by birds, and employees were seen to handle trash and cleaning equipment and then touch prepared food without washing their hands in between."
I do not know the past violations, but it does seem to be a management problem, and the problems listed this time are an easy fix. They are common sense sanitary actions to most people. Restoring public confidence may not be however.

Should add on the Rudy's I believe any place that has butcher shop should be required to have employees who handle the meat tested for blood diseases like Hepatitis B or C which can be deadly and very contagious, you can also be vaccinated for it now, as most fire fighters are required to be now and those in the medical field.

What happened there with the Hepatitis B or C don’t remember which, but that one employee spread it to people at Rudy’s and then De angelo's where he worked as well. Forget how many got it but it was a few and once you have that, you have it for life and it can kill people also or disable them severly.

Disgusting! Definitely will not be purchasing anything from them in the future IF they re-open. And they really had a good business going there - you'd think they wouldn't have been so careless and irresponsible.

Petey, they are being villified-again I challenge folks to go to the DOH website and look up other establishments-we are not talking "one or two" trivial violations. There are restaurants and markets that have lengthy and repeated serious violations over the course of years many of them recent. One popular local restaurant keeps it bread on the floor in an open container...sweet! As Tonya said, there are two sides to every story. I have heard from other business owners that the DOH have stepped up their game in the last few months-not out of concern for the public's safety, no out of concern for their job-apparently handing out frequent violations makes them indispensable in this bankrupt state economy. Sheeple like you that believe everything you hear because someone from the government said so, is the reason our country is the way it is....

The thing that makes me so sad about all this is the way it's being treated. It's a misfortune for a local business. They are going out of business and we are losing yet another local business ~ why I wonder do we as human society feed off of the misfortune of others! I will never understand that. I do understand there were violations and I am GLAD the RI Dept of Health followed through with the closing. But I seriously don't think it needed to be so BIG.. so I dont' know how to explain it. I just feel badly! I am a compassionate sap!

Having owned an artisan bakery and being familiar with most of the bakeries statewide, if you take your business elsewhere, you're going to experience similar conditions in the summer months unless you go to a very large commercial facility where you buy bread that tastes like white angel food cake. Sad but true. Bristol Bakery had clean reports for several months until a blitz on July 6...Why? Who call ed DOH? A competitor? A disgruntled employee? Believe me, Wholesale bread is a cut throat local business, and a competitor would call you in just because you had some of his bread racks (while he had twice as many of yours on his own loading docks!). Visit the back work areas of any local bakery at nicht or very early am and you will see what I refer to. This is just one example that could easily be put to rights. The report jargon can be written in such a way as to make the violations correctable or make them appear out of control and beyond repair, rendering the business's PR doomed. The comments above show just that. I would just as soon buy products from Bristol Bakery as most small bakeries in RI. DJ

Not surprised by these reports in the least.

I've seen the bread being left outside. It is absolutely foul.

It's hardly a surprise that these, among other violations, were reported.

Thank god for that... Finally, folks can see what these folks are made of (not much!)

Dianna Jones, I am grateful for your input. While I said I am grateful we have a Dept of Health yes.. violations are sometimes written in jargon that is not what the average eye understands.
I am happy to read your comments. AND I do believe there isn't a place around dealing with foods (including our local grocery stores) that have no violations. I saw an inspector in SeaBra one day pull all the chicken packages off the shelves because the temps weren't correct on those particular shelves, does that mean everyone who shops there should no longer buy the chicken? Or that the inspector helped make it better? It's all so weird for me, WE aren't really that dumb to think every kitchen in all the restaurants people eat at are immaculate are we? Hum??

This is not acceptable! I wanted to let you all know that there is a new local company in RI going national called Pest Free Enviroment.
PFE is committed to pairing educated patrons with conscientious dining establishments that are intent on maintaining safe, pest-free facilities.
Once PFE gets a copy of a restaurant's contract showing regular pest control servicing, a sticker will be placed in the window so you know that you can dine there with peace of mind. There is also a facebook page under 'PFE'. http://www.pestfreeenvironment.com/
Check us out and let us know what you think!