Old food and lots of it.

Health inspectors found 78 containers of expired macaroni salad in the walk-in cooler at Cardenas Markets restaurant on Meadows and Decatur Boulevard.

They had a use-by date of December 21, but were still in the fridge on January 3.

They only got thrown out once the inspector found them.

Cardenas restaurant got a 38-demerit C grade for that and other violations including a large box of moldy zucchini, and raw chicken being prepped right above raw produce and next to multiple ready-to-eat foods.

There was also a lot of food at unsafe temperatures, including seven large trays of cooked tamales, cooked chicken and hot chocolate.

Inspectors also found food was not protected from contamination, and there was heavy rust build-up on the can opener and heavy dried food debris on a vegetable dicer stored as clean.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW CARDENA'S MARKET HEALTH INSPECTION REPORT

When we arrived at Cardenas to ask for the person in charge, she told us she was not authorized to speak on camera and asked us to leave and call their corporate office in California.

That office sent a statement, which was almost exactly the same as what they sent when Cardenas was first on Dirty Dining in October 2016.

In response to your inquiry regarding a recent food establishment inspection that took place at one of our stores, located at 4700 Meadows Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada, a list of deficiencies was identified during said inspection by the Southern Nevada Health District and all the deficiencies have been immediately corrected. Cardenas follows strict guidelines in all food preparations and takes great pride in providing the best quality service while providing the finest quality food products to our customers. We have taken immediate actions to inspect our food handling procedures and assure that our internal controls and food preparation procedures continue to meet and exceed all regulatory standards on a daily basis. In addition, we have immediately instituted food handling training sessions for all our kitchen team members. We are anticipating a meeting with the Southern Nevada Health District to further expand on our proactive managerial controls in our effort to work with them to achieve our common goal of service and return to our original grade 'A' rating.

The restaurant inside Cardenas Markets has gotten C downgrades on both of its last two routine inspections.

When that happens, the Health District requires intervention training before re-inspection can be scheduled.

