The Alternative Press

PATERSON, NJ – A city health inspector on Thursday found no violations at Ming’s Restaurant day after members of a School 6 parents group say they there was a cockroach in some take-out food from the Broadway eatery.

Several Paterson parents protested outside Ming’s on Thursday afternoon, saying the restaurant would not refund their money after they found the bug in a tray of shrimp and broccoli.

An employee at Ming’s said the restaurant was willing to reimburse the women for the tray that allegedly had the cockroach inside it, but would not refund them for other food that was part of the order, especially because the workers said most of it had been eaten. The employee declined to give her name.

Paterson’s Director of Health and Human Services Donna Nelson-Ivy said a city inspector responded to the women’s complaints by going to Ming’s on Thursday afternoon, but found no bugs “dead or alive.’’

Nelson-Ivy said the restaurant provided the inspector with the information for its pest control company. Ming’s last extermination had been performed on January 9, 2013, she said. The inspector suggested the restaurant conducted exterminations twice a month from now on “just to be safe,’’ Nelson-Ivy said.

A handful of members from the School 6 Parents-Teachers-Organization said they had ordered food from Ming’s on Wednesday after a meeting at the school. Pamela Coleman said the group had a makeshift buffet, sharing the various items they had delivered. Coleman said she poked at a piece of broccoli on one tray and found the cockroach beneath it.

The bug startled the group, said Coleman. “People stopped eating and dropped their forks,’’ she said. Tiara Wade, the PTO’s vice president, said some of the women became nauseous and threw up.

The group found no other bugs in their food, the women said.

“Ming’s is one of our favorite places to order from,’’ Wade said. “We just wanted our money back.’’

The total value of the order had been about $29, said Coleman.