MIAMI, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors walked into Asado Collective, a perishable food processing operation in Miami, and found the facility had no probe thermometer available anywhere on the premises to check the temperatures of cooling or cold-held food products.
That finding was not new. Inspectors had cited the same problem before.
What Inspectors Found
The February 4 inspection, a preoperational review conducted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, turned up three violations. All three fell into the priority foundation category, meaning they are procedural and policy failures that underpin the facility's ability to operate safely. None were corrected on site.
The thermometer citation carried a repeat designation. According to the inspector's notes, "no probe thermometer available in the food establishment to assess cooling and cold holding temperatures throughout the establishment." For a perishable processing operation, that is a foundational problem: without a working thermometer on hand, there is no reliable way to verify that products are being cooled correctly or held at safe temperatures before they leave the facility.
The second violation involved the person in charge. The inspector found "no employee health policy available in the food establishment." A copy of employee health guidance and a reporting agreement were provided to the facility via email during the inspection. The third violation was the absence of any written procedures for responding to a vomit or diarrhea discharge event on the premises. Guidance for cleanup and disinfection was also sent by email.
None of the three violations were corrected on site during the February visit.
What These Violations Mean
For anyone who buys products from Asado Collective, the thermometer violation is the most direct concern. Perishable food processing depends on temperature control at every stage. When a facility has no probe thermometer available, inspectors cannot verify, and the operation itself cannot verify, that products have been cooled from cooking temperatures to safe holding temperatures within the required time window. Bacterial growth accelerates in the range between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Without a thermometer, that window is invisible.
The repeat designation makes it worse. This was not the first time inspectors had to note the absence of a thermometer. The facility had already been put on notice about this gap, and it remained unresolved when inspectors returned in February 2026.
The employee health policy violation carries a different but serious risk. When no written health policy exists, there is no documented system requiring employees who are sick with conditions like norovirus, salmonella, or hepatitis A to report their illness or stay away from food handling. A person in charge who cannot correctly answer questions about preventing the spread of illness through food, as the inspector noted here, is a gap in the first line of defense against an outbreak.
The missing vomit and diarrhea response procedures matter for the same reason. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness, spreads rapidly through contaminated surfaces. A facility that processes perishable food and has no written protocol for containing and disinfecting after an exposure event is operating without a critical safety net.
The Longer Record
The February 2026 inspection was the ninth on record at this location. The history, taken as a whole, is mixed in a specific way.
The facility passed six of its eight prior inspections with zero violations, including a clean sanitation inspection in August 2025 and two clean preoperational inspections in the spring of 2025. That track record suggests the operation is capable of meeting state standards.
But the repeat thermometer violation points to a gap that has persisted. The April 2024 inspection logged three violations, and the June 2023 inspection logged two. The February 2026 inspection, with three violations including one repeat, matched the worst single-visit count in the facility's history.
The fact that the thermometer problem had already been cited before the February 2026 visit, and still was not resolved when inspectors arrived, is the detail that distinguishes this inspection from a routine administrative hiccup. A facility that passes cleanly in August 2025 and then arrives at a February 2026 preoperational inspection without a thermometer on hand has not maintained the conditions it demonstrated six months earlier.
Unresolved at Inspection's Close
The inspector provided written guidance by email for the employee health policy and the vomit cleanup procedures during the February 4 visit. Whether those documents were subsequently adopted and implemented is not reflected in the inspection record.
The probe thermometer violation was not corrected on site. As of the close of the February 2026 inspection, a perishable food processing operation in Miami was moving forward without the basic instrument needed to verify that its products were safe to handle and distribute.