MIAMI, FL. State inspectors walked into Caribe Restaurant on SW 24th Street on September 30 and documented food coming from an unapproved or unknown source, a violation that means no federal safety agency ever inspected that product before it reached customers' plates.
That was one of seven high-severity violations cited during the visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source citation stands apart from the others. When food bypasses USDA or FDA inspection, there is no chain of custody if someone gets sick. Inspectors cannot trace where it came from, who handled it, or whether it was ever held at safe temperatures before it arrived at the restaurant.
The cooking temperature violation compounds that risk directly. Food from an unverified source, cooked to an insufficient temperature, removes two of the three safeguards between a contaminated product and a customer.
Inspectors also cited two separate violations related to toxic chemicals: one for improper storage or labeling, and a second for improper identification or use of toxic substances. Both violations were classified as high-severity. Chemicals stored or labeled incorrectly near food create a contamination pathway that does not require a visible spill to cause harm.
The remaining high-severity violations covered food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, improper handwashing technique, and the absence of any written employee health policy. Six intermediate violations were also documented, including improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate ventilation and lighting, improper use of wiping cloths, inadequate toilet facilities, and equipment in poor repair.
What These Violations Mean
The food from unapproved sources violation is one of the hardest to dismiss as a paperwork problem. Without USDA or FDA inspection records, a restaurant cannot verify whether incoming product was ever tested for Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli. If a customer gets sick, health investigators have no supplier to trace and no lot numbers to pull.
The undercooking violation makes that risk acute. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When the food itself has no verified inspection history and the cooking process does not reach required temperatures, the restaurant has eliminated two independent safety layers in the same meal.
The employee health policy violation adds a third gap. Without a written policy, there is no formal protocol requiring a sick worker to stay home or move off food preparation. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through direct contact with contaminated hands. The improper handwashing technique citation at Caribe means that even when employees attempted to wash their hands, the technique documented by inspectors was insufficient to remove pathogens.
The sewage disposal violation rounds out a picture of compounding failures. Improper wastewater handling introduces fecal contamination risk into a facility already documented as lacking adequate handwashing technique and employee health protocols.
The Longer Record
The September 30 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Caribe Restaurant has been inspected 23 times and has accumulated 340 total violations across its inspection history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The eight most recent inspections before September 30 all produced high-severity violation counts. The March 9, 2026 visit generated 11 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate ones. The March 10, 2026 follow-up still produced 8 high-severity violations. By March 25, the count had dropped to 5 high-severity violations, but that figure climbed again to 7 by the September 30 inspection.
The pattern holds further back. Inspections in September 2025, March 2025, and December 2024 each produced between 4 and 7 high-severity violations. There is no inspection in the recent record that shows a clean result or a sustained period of compliance.
Across those eight prior inspections, the facility averaged more than 6 high-severity violations per visit. The September 30 inspection, with 7 high-severity findings, sits at the middle of that range, not at the top.
Still Open
State inspectors documented 7 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations at Caribe Restaurant on September 30, 2026, including food from an unknown source, undercooking, two chemical storage failures, unsanitary food contact surfaces, flawed handwashing technique, and no written sick-worker policy.
The restaurant was not ordered to close.
