MIAMI, FL. An employee at Central Park Food Station on SW 137th Avenue was observed making direct bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food during a September 23 inspection, one of six high-severity violations state inspectors documented that day. The facility was not closed.
Bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food is among the most direct transmission routes for Norovirus, a pathogen responsible for an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year. That single violation, on its own, would concern food safety officials. But inspectors found five more high-priority problems the same day, plus three intermediate violations.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector found that the facility had no written employee health policy, and that at least one employee was not reporting illness symptoms. Those two violations compound each other. Without a formal policy, workers have no documented obligation to report when they are sick. Without reporting, a contagious employee can work an entire shift, handling food that goes directly to customers.
Food contact surfaces were documented as not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and similar equipment that harbor bacteria between uses are a primary vehicle for cross-contamination, particularly when raw and ready-to-eat foods are prepared in the same space.
Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique. That citation matters because it means handwashing was being attempted but done incorrectly, leaving pathogens on hands that workers then carried to food and surfaces. Multi-use utensils were found not properly cleaned, and wiping cloths were being used improperly, a combination that can spread contamination from one surface to another rather than removing it.
The facility also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. That advisory is required specifically to warn customers who face elevated health risks, including elderly diners, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems, before they order dishes that could expose them to pathogens.
What These Violations Mean
The cluster of illness-related violations at Central Park Food Station on September 23 reflects a breakdown at every stage of the contamination prevention chain. The bare-hand contact violation means food reached customers without the barrier that gloves or utensils are required to provide. The improper handwashing citation means the corrective practice that should catch contamination failures was itself failing.
The absence of an employee health policy is not a paperwork technicality. It is the foundational document that tells workers when they must stay home, what symptoms require them to report to a manager, and what the facility's protocol is when someone becomes ill mid-shift. Food workers who fail to report illness are the leading cause of multi-victim Norovirus outbreaks, according to state health risk data.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces create what inspectors call a cross-contamination vehicle. Bacteria transferred to a cutting board from raw protein, for example, can survive and transfer to the next food item prepared on that surface if the board is not properly sanitized between uses.
The wiping cloth violation adds another layer. Cloths used to wipe down surfaces and then reused without sanitizing can carry pathogens from a contaminated area to a clean one, undoing any cleaning that preceded them.
The Longer Record
Central Park Food Station: Recent Inspection History
The September 23 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Central Park Food Station has accumulated 263 total violations across 26 inspections on record, and has never been emergency-closed.
The facility's worst documented inspection came in July 2024, when inspectors found 10 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations in a single visit. That inspection did not result in a closure. Six months later, in January 2025, inspectors returned and found 6 high-severity violations. The pattern continued through July 2025 and December 2025, each visit producing 5 high-severity citations.
One inspection in May 2024 produced zero violations, suggesting the facility is capable of meeting state standards. Every other inspection in the past two years has produced multiple high-severity citations, and in five of the last eight inspections, that count has reached five or higher.
A follow-up inspection conducted the day after the September 23 visit found 1 high-severity violation and 1 intermediate violation still on record.
Central Park Food Station remained open throughout.
