Flea markets to be tighter regulated

DONNA - A line of people extended beyond the painted plywood walls of the homemade tamale stand.Elotes $1.

Tamales veracruzanos $2.

Tamales $4 a dozen.

To them, it didn't matter - or they didn't know - that Hidalgo County officials had shut the Val Verde Flea Market down for an afternoon the week before because of health violations.

Angelica Gomez from Edinburg was eating an elote and said she didn't care about the health department's review.

"I like it," she said.

But Winter Texan Alicia Laansma, who resides in Donna when in the area, said she would never eat at a flea market.

"We don't know what it is," she said.

"I don't really like to eat at flea markets anymore. I'm sure those people don't wash their hands. I'd rather go to a restaurant."

County officials have struggled for decades to regulate individual food vendors at flea markets that have popped up across the area.

The majority of violations stem from vendors not having hot water to sanitize dishes, or from preparing food off-site then storing it in coolers without adequate temperature regulation and hauling it to the flea markets to sell.

"If you are going to a flea market, eat at your own risk," said Eddie Olivarez, chief administrative officer of the Hidalgo County Health Department. "We'd rather shut them down than cite them. If I am shutting them down then I guarantee people are not getting sick."

Health inspectors can cite individual vendors, but they can easily pop up the next day at another flea market. Under current policy, flea market owners escape citations.

Olivarez is trying to change that.

It took about six months for him to pull together a new mobile food vendor policy that is expected to go before the Hidalgo County Commissioner's Court within the next month.

If approved, it would require the individual vendors and flea market owners to take food handling and management classes. Vendors would also have stickers placed on their sites with a barcode that inspectors could scan to immediately pull up compliance history.

Above all, it would allow the county to cite the flea market owners to make them more accountable for how food is sold on their property.

Even though individual vendors can quickly whip out their health permits it doesn't mean that they are following all of the rules, Olivarez said.

The owner of the tamale stand at the Val Verde flea market showed his health permit, but had numerous violations according to Olivarez: no running water in his stand and he had prepared food off site and brought it to the flea market.

The vendor wouldn't give his name but said in Spanish that he thought it was OK that he made the food at home and brought it. He also said he welcomes the inspectors to tell him what he should be doing.

Health inspectors hit the markets weekly, making them familiar faces and causing the word to spread quickly among vendors that they are on the grounds. There are six major markets around the county, and that doesn't include smaller neighborhood barbecue operations that sell tacos on the weekends during a yard sale.

The county has been using state laws to try to regulate the sales, but they don't come close to what should be in place at the local level. Olivarez said officials simply didn't pay attention to food vendors for years, only in the past year or two have the county health, planning and fire departments started working together to keep a closer eye on the markets.

Most of the time health officials rely on complaints from other flea market owners. Olivarez said it's rare for a consumer to call complaining of bad food, but other owners will tattle on neighboring markets to draw in their business. the cleaner (it is) it will bring in more business."