DORAL, FL. Inspectors visiting Tacos La Potranca & Cantina on NW 87th Avenue on June 2 found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic chemicals improperly stored near food contact areas, and employees washing their hands using technique inspectors deemed inadequate, all in a single visit that produced six high-severity violations.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking citation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate there that day. At a taco and cantina, poultry is a staple protein. Salmonella in chicken survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and inspectors documented that the kitchen was not reaching required minimum temperatures.
The two chemical violations compound the picture. Inspectors cited both improper storage or labeling of toxic chemicals and improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances. Those are two distinct categories of chemical mismanagement documented in the same kitchen on the same day.
Food contact surfaces, the cutting boards and prep areas where ingredients are handled, were also flagged as not properly cleaned or sanitized. That finding sits alongside the handwashing technique violation, which means the surfaces were contaminated and the hands preparing food on them were not being adequately cleaned either.
Inspectors also cited time as a public health control not properly used. When a kitchen relies on time rather than temperature to manage food safety, it requires strict documentation and discipline. The citation indicates that discipline was absent.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooking violation is not a paperwork problem. It means food was served, or was being prepared to serve, at temperatures that leave live pathogens intact. For poultry specifically, that is a direct Salmonella exposure route, and Salmonella infections can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, hospitalization, and in vulnerable populations, worse.
The chemical violations are a separate and acute category of risk. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and a customer would have no way of knowing. Mislabeled containers create the additional risk that staff handle hazardous substances without knowing what they are.
Unsanitized food contact surfaces are a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer, particularly in a kitchen where multiple proteins move across the same cutting boards and prep stations. Combined with the handwashing technique failure, the contamination pathway from raw protein to ready-to-eat food is open at multiple points simultaneously.
The time-control citation closes the loop. Proper time-as-a-public-health-control logs are a fallback mechanism for kitchens that hold food outside of temperature-controlled environments. Without that documentation, inspectors, and the kitchen itself, have no reliable way to know how long food has been sitting in the bacterial growth zone between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Longer Record
The June 2 inspection was not a stumble for a restaurant with a clean history. State records show Tacos La Potranca & Cantina has been inspected 28 times and has accumulated 171 total violations across that record.
The pattern of high-severity findings is not new. In July 2024, inspectors documented eight high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. In August 2025, a single-day pair of inspections produced a clean visit followed hours or days later by eight more high-severity violations and one intermediate. October 2025 brought four more high-severity citations.
The facility has never been emergency-closed, despite multiple inspections in the same calendar year that each produced clusters of high-severity findings. In between those clusters, inspections in March, May, and July of 2025 each recorded zero high-severity violations, suggesting the kitchen can meet standards when it chooses to, or when it knows an inspector is coming.
Still Open
Six high-severity violations in a single inspection, including undercooking, two categories of chemical mismanagement, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and a failed handwashing technique, did not trigger an emergency closure at Tacos La Potranca & Cantina on June 2.
The restaurant, which has logged 171 violations across 28 inspections without a single emergency closure, remained open for business.