HIALEAH, FL. State inspectors walked into Di Piazza Pizzeria at 1408 W 49 St on September 1 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means no government inspector had ever verified that food was safe before it reached customers' plates.
That was one of ten high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food-sourcing violation sits at the top of the list for a reason. When a restaurant purchases food outside the regulated supply chain, there is no record of where that product came from, how it was handled, or whether it was inspected for contamination. If a customer gets sick, investigators have nowhere to trace the ingredient back to.
Inspectors also found that food was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures. Undercooked poultry can harbor live Salmonella. Undercooked ground beef can carry E. coli O157:H7. Both can cause severe illness and, in vulnerable patients, death.
Toxic chemicals were stored improperly, in proximity to food. That is not a paperwork violation. It is a direct contamination pathway.
The remaining high-severity findings compounded the picture: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, employees demonstrating improper handwashing technique, no written employee health policy, and employees not reporting illness symptoms. No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties. No allergen awareness was demonstrated. No consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked menu items.
Three intermediate violations accompanied the ten high-severity citations: improper sewage or wastewater disposal, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and improper waste disposal.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms is one of the most direct routes to a multi-victim outbreak. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads efficiently from a single sick food worker to dozens of customers. A written health policy is the mechanism that keeps symptomatic employees out of the kitchen. Di Piazza had neither the policy nor the reporting practice on September 1.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk. Inspectors do not cite this violation when employees skip handwashing entirely, which is captured separately. They cite it when an employee goes through the motions but does so incorrectly, leaving pathogens on hands that then transfer to food and surfaces. Studies show that technique failures can leave contamination levels nearly as high as no washing at all.
The sewage violation carries its own acute risk. Improper wastewater disposal creates conditions for fecal contamination to spread through a facility, reaching food preparation surfaces, equipment, and food itself. Raw sewage contains E. coli, Hepatitis A, and a range of other pathogens.
For the 32 million Americans with food allergies, the absence of demonstrated allergen awareness at Di Piazza is not a minor gap. Allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A customer with a severe allergy to a common pizza ingredient, tree nuts or shellfish for example, has no reliable protection at a facility where staff cannot demonstrate they understand allergen protocols.
The Longer Record
Di Piazza Pizzeria: Inspection History, 2022-2026
September 1 was not an aberration. State records show Di Piazza has been inspected 28 times, accumulating 333 total violations across its history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in those records is specific. Inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations on October 14, 2024, and again on October 24, 2023. The September 1, 2026 inspection matches both of those totals exactly. In the eight inspections on record going back to August 2022, the violation count has never dropped below three high-severity citations in a single visit.
That means every inspection in the available record found at least one violation serious enough to carry a high-severity designation. The categories that recur, management failures, food handling practices, sourcing concerns, suggest the underlying conditions are not being corrected between visits in any lasting way.
Di Piazza Pizzeria was open for business on September 2, 2026.
