Shown is what Corina Hernandez of San Benito said is the inside of her chorizo and egg breakfast taco containing what she claims to be a worm found within. (Courtesy photo)
By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
A woman claims to have made a disturbing discovery in a breakfast taco she was about to eat from a local convenience store on Tuesday, March 22.
Corina Hernandez of San Benito said that her husband had bought her and a co-worker some tacos from the Stripes located on the corner of Williams Road and Expressway 83. She ordered two potato and egg tacos and two chorizo and egg tacos, but Hernandez said she ended up getting more than she bargained for.
“It was about 8:50 a.m. or 8:55 a.m. yesterday morning, and I called my husband to bring me some tacos,” said Hernandez, who works at San Benito High School with the security and police department. “I ate the potato and egg taco, and it was fine. I put chilito on it, and it was fine. My boss ate the chorizo and egg taco. When I got ready to eat my chorizo and egg taco, I opened it to put the salsa in there, and a worm was there. It’s a maggot.”
Hernandez said she called a City of San Benito health inspector, who documented her complaint with photographs and a statement from the concerned citizen.
“He took pictures and he was even grossed out with it,” Hernandez said. “He called the area manager from Stripes; he came over from Brownsville. Apparently what they were going to do, they were going to send the maggot with the taco to a lab to be analyzed.”
Chief Health Inspector Jerry Delgado inspected the convenience store the day of the incident. Following over an hour’s inspection, Delgado found a three-point demerit, which was for no paper towels under the handwash facilities category, according to a report of the inspection.
Code Enforcement Director John Rodriguez said that Delgado would be conducting a follow-up to determinate that regulations are being followed. Although the store was cited for three non-food related demerits, Hernandez was not convinced of the store’s cleanliness.
“It’s funny because in the report, they didn’t find anything wrong with the food. It took the area manager and the health inspector about an hour to get to the Stripes,” said Hernandez, further claiming, “They didn’t get there until about 10 o’clock. By this time, the store manager knew what was going on, so she had her workers like honey bees, working hard and switching stuff around, cleaning stuff. So by the time the area manager and the health inspector got there, the whole kitchen was clean.”
Stripes Area Manager Gilbert Morales declined comment for this story.
Hernandez was given her money back for the purchase of the tacos.
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