MIAMI, FL. Inspectors visiting Café Bea on SW 142nd Avenue on April 29 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means the café was serving food that had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely, with no way to trace it if a customer got sick.
That was one of 13 high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The café was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction violation stands out alongside the food sourcing problem. Inspectors found that proper freezing or cooking procedures for fish, pork, or wild game were not being followed, meaning parasites including Anisakis and Trichinella could survive to reach a customer's plate.
Shellfish records were also deficient. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification, which means oysters, clams, or mussels on the menu could not be traced to a licensed harvester if someone became ill after eating them.
Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled, and inspectors cited a second, separate violation for toxic substances not properly identified or used. Two distinct chemical storage failures in the same inspection, at a food-service facility.
The person in charge was either not present or not performing duties. That single fact helps explain much of the rest: no employee health policy, no reporting of illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, no allergen awareness among staff, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. These are not isolated oversights. They are the downstream result of nobody running the kitchen.
Sewage or wastewater was being improperly disposed of, one of four intermediate violations that accompanied the 13 high-severity citations.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing and shellfish violations together describe a café where customers had no assurance that what they were eating had been inspected at any point in the supply chain. Food from unapproved sources bypasses USDA and FDA oversight entirely. If a customer became sick, there would be no records to trace the ingredient back to its origin.
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations represent a direct transmission route for Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million infections in the United States annually. A food worker who does not report symptoms and does not wash hands correctly can contaminate every dish that leaves a kitchen. The inspector found both failures at Café Bea on the same day.
No allergen awareness among staff means a customer with a peanut, shellfish, or tree nut allergy who asked a server whether a dish was safe would receive an answer from someone with no training to give it. Food allergies send 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year in the United States.
The sewage disposal violation compounds everything else. Improper wastewater handling creates the conditions for fecal contamination to spread through a facility, reaching food, surfaces, and utensils.
The Longer Record
Café Bea Inspection History, Selected Visits
The April 29 inspection was not a first offense, or even close to one. State records show 26 inspections on file for Café Bea, with 293 total violations accumulated across that history.
The café logged 8 high-severity violations in September 2025, then 3 high-severity violations in February 2026, then 13 in April 2026. The trajectory moved in one direction. In August and September 2023, inspectors visited three times in five weeks, finding high-severity violations in two of those visits.
A follow-up inspection the day after the April 29 visit, on April 30, still found 4 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. The most serious problems had been partially addressed, but four high-severity citations remained the morning after a 13-violation inspection.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented 13 high-severity violations at Café Bea on April 29, including food from unapproved sources, no procedures to kill parasites, improper chemical storage, and no one in charge of the kitchen.
The café was not emergency-closed. It served customers that day, and the day after, when inspectors returned and found four more high-severity violations still in place.
Café Bea has accumulated 293 violations across 26 inspections and has never been emergency-closed.