MARGATE, FL. A state inspector visiting Delicias de la Abuela on West Atlantic Boulevard on September 24 documented food being sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means inspectors could not confirm whether the ingredients in that kitchen had ever passed a USDA or FDA safety check. The restaurant was not closed.
That single violation stood alongside 11 other high-severity citations recorded the same day, a total of 12 high-priority findings in one visit. State inspectors also documented five intermediate violations before leaving the Margate restaurant open for business.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's report lists food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated alongside the sourcing violation. That combination raises a specific concern: if the origin of an ingredient is unknown and its condition is also flagged, there is no chain of custody to trace if a customer later becomes ill.
Food was also found not cooked to the required minimum temperature. For poultry, Salmonella survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The report does not specify which item was undercooked, but the violation carries the same risk regardless of protein.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled inside the kitchen. That violation documents the physical proximity of cleaning agents or pesticides to food preparation areas, a condition that can cause acute poisoning through accidental contamination of food or surfaces.
Inspectors also cited two separate handwashing failures: inadequate handwashing by food employees and improper hand and arm washing technique. Both were recorded as high-severity on the same visit. The sewage and wastewater disposal violation, logged as intermediate, adds a fecal contamination risk to a kitchen already flagged for handwashing breakdowns.
The person in charge was cited for not being present or not performing duties. No employee health policy was in place, and employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those three violations, all high-severity, appeared on the same inspection report.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. It means the kitchen was using ingredients that bypassed federal inspection systems designed to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before food reaches a restaurant. If a customer became ill after eating at Delicias de la Abuela that week, investigators would have no supplier records to trace.
The absence of an employee health policy and the failure of employees to report illness symptoms are directly linked to outbreak mechanics. Norovirus, which accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, spreads most efficiently through a sick food worker who does not know they are supposed to stay home, or who knows and continues working anyway. Both conditions were documented here on the same day.
Inadequate handwashing and improper technique are separate violations for a reason. An employee who approaches the sink but does not wash long enough, or who skips steps, leaves pathogens on their hands even though the attempt was made. Combined with improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, those failures create a complete contamination pathway from hand to surface to plate.
The improper sewage and wastewater disposal citation is among the most serious intermediate violations an inspector can document. Raw sewage contains Hepatitis A, E. coli, and a range of bacterial pathogens. In a kitchen where handwashing was already found inadequate, a sewage handling failure compounds every other risk on the list.
The Longer Record
The September 24 inspection was not the first time this facility drew a double-digit high-severity count. Records show that on July 29, 2025, inspectors cited 10 high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. A follow-up the next day, July 30, found one high-severity violation remaining. On December 11, 2025, inspectors returned and documented 10 high-severity violations again alongside three intermediate citations.
The September 24 visit produced 12 high-severity violations, the highest single-day count in the available record. Across 35 inspections on file, the facility has accumulated 362 total violations.
The pattern across the prior two years shows a recurring cycle: a high-violation inspection, a follow-up with sharply reduced numbers, then a return to double-digit high-severity counts months later. The November 2024 inspection found five high-severity violations. The July 2024 visit found seven. The February 2024 visit found five.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. After the September 24 visit that produced 12 high-severity violations, a follow-up inspection the next day, September 25, found zero high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The restaurant remained open throughout.
