Chemicals and paint were stored directly above canned food at a Miami Gardens catering company

MIAMI GARDENS, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors walked into a Miami Gardens catering operation and found bottles of chemicals, paint, and hand sanitizer sitting on a shelf directly above cans of beans.

That was the single most serious finding at City Chef Catering LLC, a non-perishable food processor on the northwest edge of Miami-Dade County, when Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors arrived on March 25, 2026. The facility logged three violations in total, including one priority-level citation.

What Inspectors Found

The priority violation was the most direct: in the backroom, inspectors documented chemicals, paint, and hand sanitizer stored on a shelf immediately above canned beans. The inspector's notes record that the chemicals were moved to appropriate locations during the inspection itself.

That correction happened on site. But two other violations were not resolved before inspectors left.

The facility had no certified food protection manager, and no certificate was available at the time of the visit. State rules require at least one employee at a food establishment to hold that credential, a baseline safeguard meant to ensure someone on the premises understands food safety fundamentals.

The third violation was procedural but pointed. Inspectors found that City Chef Catering had no written policy in place for handling vomiting or diarrheal events on the premises. Guidance for creating that policy was provided to the facility by email during the inspection.

What These Violations Mean

The chemical storage violation is the kind that inspectors treat as a priority because the risk is immediate and direct. Paint and cleaning chemicals stored above open or loosely sealed food containers can contaminate product through spills, drips, or vapors. At a facility that processes food distributed to others, that contamination would not be limited to a single customer. It would travel with the product.

The absence of a certified food protection manager matters in a different way. That certification is not a formality. It is the mechanism the state uses to ensure that someone in the building understands temperature control, cross-contamination, and proper storage. When no one holds that credential, there is no designated person to catch violations before an inspector does.

The missing vomit and diarrhea cleanup policy sounds procedural until you consider what it covers. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks, spreads rapidly through contaminated surfaces and aerosolized particles. A written cleanup procedure specifies how to isolate the area, what protective equipment to use, and how to sanitize in a way that actually stops transmission. Without that policy, employees at City Chef Catering had no formal guidance on how to respond if an incident occurred in a food handling area.

None of the three violations in March 2026 involved a stop-sale order. No products were pulled from distribution as a result of this inspection.

The Longer Record

City Chef Catering's inspection history with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is short. The March 2026 visit was only the second inspection on record at this location. The first, conducted in April 2024, found zero violations and resulted in a clean bill of health.

That context cuts two ways. The facility is not a repeat offender with a documented pattern of ignoring the same problems year after year. The April 2024 inspection produced no citations at all.

But the March 2026 findings introduced three new violations at a location that had previously passed without issue. The absence of a certified food protection manager and the lack of a written emergency response procedure are not the kind of issues that appear overnight. Both reflect gaps in operational policy that would have existed before the inspection date.

The March visit was categorized as a preoperational inspection, meaning inspectors were evaluating the facility's readiness to operate, not conducting a routine compliance check on an already-running operation. That framing makes the missing manager certification and the absent written procedures more notable, not less. A facility presenting itself as ready to operate did not yet have either in place.

What Remained Unresolved

Of the three violations documented in March 2026, one was corrected on site. The chemicals and paint were moved away from the food during the inspection itself.

The other two were not. At the time inspectors left, City Chef Catering still had no certified food protection manager on staff with a certificate available on the premises, and still had no formal written procedures for responding to a vomiting or diarrheal event. Guidance for the latter was emailed to the facility, but the policy had not been written or adopted before the inspection closed.

Whether those gaps were addressed after the inspection is not reflected in the available records.