HIALEAH, FL. A state inspector walked into CiCi's Pizza 749 on West 49th Street on August 6 and found food from unapproved or unknown sources being served to customers, a violation that means the pizza and other items on the buffet had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely, with no way to trace them if someone got sick.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is among the most direct threats to a customer's health. At a pizza buffet, items cycle through continuously, and food not brought to the required minimum internal temperature can harbor live Salmonella in poultry or other pathogens that survive low heat. There is no second chance once the slice is on a customer's plate.
Food contact surfaces, including the equipment that touches food before it reaches customers, were cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized. That creates a direct transfer route for bacteria from one food item to the next, across every item prepared on those surfaces throughout the day.
The illness reporting violations compound the risk. Inspectors cited both the absence of an adequate written employee health policy and the failure of employees to report symptoms of illness. Those two violations together mean the restaurant had no formal mechanism to keep a sick worker away from food, and workers were not reporting symptoms even without one.
Improper handwashing technique was also cited. An employee can go through the motion of washing hands and still leave pathogens on their skin if the technique is wrong. Combined with the illness-reporting failures, the handwashing citation describes a kitchen where the most basic barrier between a sick worker and a customer's food was not functioning.
The eighth violation, improper use of wiping cloths, was classified as intermediate. Wiping cloths used incorrectly spread bacteria from one surface to another rather than cleaning them.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved or unknown sources is a traceability problem as much as a safety problem. When an ingredient enters a restaurant through channels outside the licensed supply chain, it has not been inspected by USDA or FDA. If a customer gets sick, investigators cannot trace the food back to its origin, which means an outbreak can spread further before anyone identifies the source. At a buffet-style restaurant where dozens of customers eat from the same trays, that risk is not theoretical.
Undercooking is one of the clearest and most documented causes of foodborne illness. Salmonella in poultry requires an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be killed. Food that does not reach that threshold can carry live bacteria to every customer who takes a slice. CiCi's Pizza 749 was cited for exactly this failure on August 6.
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms is what public health officials call an outbreak enabler. Norovirus, which spreads through food handled by sick workers, is responsible for the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks traced to restaurants. A written health policy gives workers clear instructions and legal backing to stay home. Without one, and without a culture of reporting, a sick employee working a buffet line is the most direct path to a multi-victim outbreak.
The consumer advisory violation means customers with compromised immune systems, elderly diners, pregnant women, and children had no warning that any item on the menu was served raw or undercooked. They could not make an informed choice.
The Longer Record
The August 6 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show CiCi's Pizza 749 has been inspected 24 times and has accumulated 186 total violations across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Looking at the eight most recent inspections before August 6, high-severity violations appeared in every single one. The counts were 3 high in August 2024, 3 high in March 2024, 3 high in August 2023, 3 high in April 2025, 2 high in September 2025, and 3 high again in February 2026. The August 6 inspection, with 7 high-severity violations, more than doubled the typical count from any prior visit on record.
A follow-up inspection on August 12, six days after the seven-violation visit, found 3 high-severity violations still present. The restaurant had reduced its high-severity count but had not cleared it.
The pattern across 24 inspections describes a facility that has cycled through high-severity violations repeatedly without reaching a clean record. Food safety failures in the categories of illness policy, handwashing, and food handling have appeared across multiple inspection cycles. The August 6 visit represents the worst single-day total in the available record.
The Facility Remained Open
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at CiCi's Pizza 749 on August 6, including food from unapproved sources, undercooked food, unsanitized food contact surfaces, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing, and no consumer advisory for undercooked items.
The restaurant served customers that day and continued operating.
