At Taco Macho, freshly made hot tamales were not adequately cooled, resulting in a failing health score for the Alpharetta restaurant.
The health inspector ordered the tamales discarded because they had not cooled to a safe temperature within two hours. However, the staff continued to sell the tamales to the lunch crowd until the inspector stepped in and made them stop.
The tamales, prepared at 5:30 a.m., were still too hot at 11:30 a.m., and the restaurant had no written time control plan to ensure food safety.
Taco Macho, 5320 Atlanta Highway 9, scored 47/U on the Feb. 24 inspection.
In other violations, some meats in coolers and on the ice were at 60 and 76 degrees, well above the 41-degree maximum for cold food storage. These were discarded.
There were repeat storage violations. Raw meats were over fresh foods and seafood in coolers. Single-serve containers were used to store food, and bread was inside a used egg carton.
Also, floors in the back storage were dirty, with roaches crawling on the walls and equipment.
Taco Macho will be re-inspected.
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