‘Todo esta bien’: Food Patrol finds mouse traps, roaches at Mama Maria’s

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In this week’s Food 4 Thought, we got a dead mouse in a trap, roaches and an owner has an explanation for every violation the inspector found.

The report says “all violations were corrected” but when she let us check it out, we were catching the same issues all over again and we have the pictures and video to back it up.

But first, we’re heading just a few minutes away from our CBVS 4 studio to Papas y Papas, located at 6704 W Expressway 83 in Harlingen.

They put a tot of hard work to earn a perfect score on their June 28 inspection. Leslye Sanchez is doing a spud-tacular job, and leaving no margarine for error.

“I like this job because I interact a lot with people,” Sanchez said. “We have had a great reception. It is something different, so we have had a great reception. I like to interact with people and work with my crew to give good service.”

The open kitchen to customer view gives you a clear view of how Papas y Papas is doing a great job keeping it clean.

They’re getting two top performer stickers, one for the door and one for the drive thru!

That’s que rico!

But it’s que asco time!

The Food Patrol is heading to Mama mMaria’s, located at 735 West 2nd Street in Mercedes with their 53 page inspection reports.

Mama’s was inspected twice June 26. The violations were noted and photographed. There were the inspector findings:

• employees weren’t certified to handle food
• vegetables for customers to eat are in the same sink with dirty dishes
• food was contaminated and had to be thrown away
• the toaster was dirty
• meat was being kept in HEB grocery bags
• and a dead mouse smashed in a trap
  

The inspector ordered all the traps be removed. The next day, on June 27, Mama got another inspection, and “all violations got corrected.”

But passing a re-inspection does not mean rules are being followed. That’s why the Food Patrol is stopping to see if Mama’s learned their lesson.

Letty Rios, owner of Mama Maria’s said “todo esta bien.” Only you’ll see why it wasn’t “bien.” Rios, let us go back into the kitchen.

She quickly learned the Food Patrol does not rush safety.

“You are worse than an inspector,” Rios said.

We’re searching high and low, in every spot the inspector photographed and spotting other issues, like an open box of wine even though it’s not on the menu. And rrrrrrrrrrrrrroaches!

The dead roach is in a spot where Rios was storing trash—and tried to take it out before we could see it. But the wide angle camera, and the que asco cam catches it all—Rios saying we won’t find more roaches because this one isn’t from inside.

“Since it just rained, those are from outside,” she said. “From the sewer. They come in because of the rain. I don’t think you’ll find any because we clean every day. We don’t leave any food out. We always keep clean.”

We didn’t find more roaches, not because we weren’t looking but because we found another violation, more mouse traps. Not one but two, just feet away from each other.

One is set up to snap, the other is to keep the table stable.

“I think that one has been there since before the inspector,” Rios said. “We tried to get rid of them all, but we may have missed them. And if you noticed, there is one under the table. If you noticed, there is one there. It is holding the leg so it doesn’t shake.”

Mama had enough of us peaking around and kicked us out.

Congrats to papa y papas. We’re all rooting for you for another sticker in 2025.

Remember you’re part of the Food Patrol. If you see something que asco or gross, take a picture, take a video and send it on over to your local health department and send it over to me at investigates@kveo.com

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