County health inspectors shut down Whitehall's Noble Asian Grocery Store

Allegheny County health officials ordered an Asian market in Whitehall to close after it racked up 14 food safety and sanitation violations during an inspection last week. 

A health department inspector found Noble Asian Grocery Store was selling expired kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish, with “severe black mold-like growth” on it; maintained no water supplies, such as restrooms or hand-washing facilities, during plumbing work; and stocked 27 severely dented cans, among other violations, according to an inspection report. 

While contractors were doing sewer-line excavation and demolition work inside the market’s storage room, the inspector found boxes of food still present, some of them “partially submerged in dirt,” the report said. The store also lacks a dedicated hand sink or mop sink, the inspection found.

“We will address the violations,” Seng Naw, the store’s owner, told TribLive Tuesday.

Naw said he expects the sewage line work at the Saw Mill Run Boulevard market to be finished in about three days. He said he plans to reopen the market.