MIAMI, FL. A state inspector walked into Ferraro's Kitchen at 1099 NE 79th Street on October 6 and documented 11 high-severity violations, including a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection record shows the violations were not isolated or minor. They spanned nearly every layer of food safety, from the people managing the kitchen to the surfaces where food was prepared to the chemicals stored alongside it.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction citation means the kitchen was not following required freezing or cooking protocols for fish, pork, or other meats that carry parasites. Without those steps, organisms including Anisakis and Trichinella can survive and reach a customer's plate.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. That violation means cleaning agents or other hazardous substances were kept in proximity to food or in containers that could cause a worker, or a customer, to mistake them for something else.
Food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Salmonella in poultry requires an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be destroyed. The inspection record does not specify which items were undercooked, but the citation is classified as high severity.
The inspector also cited the restaurant for not posting a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. That advisory is required specifically to warn pregnant women, elderly customers, and people with compromised immune systems that certain menu items carry elevated risk.
No allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans and cause approximately 30,000 emergency room visits annually. A kitchen with no demonstrated allergen awareness has no reliable mechanism for preventing cross-contact.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that carry residue from one food to the next are a direct route for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items.
There was no person in charge present or performing duties, no written employee health policy, and inadequate handwashing facilities. Inspectors also cited improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning even when employees attempted to wash their hands, the technique left pathogens behind. Two intermediate violations covered improper sewage or wastewater disposal and inadequate toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no person in charge, no employee health policy, and inadequate handwashing infrastructure is not a coincidence. CDC data shows that establishments without active managerial control have three times more critical violations than those with it. When the person responsible for enforcing food safety is absent, the violations below them tend to multiply.
The employee health policy violation is acutely dangerous in a specific way. Without a written policy, there is no mechanism to identify or exclude a sick worker before they handle food. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads primarily through exactly that route.
The sewage and wastewater disposal citation compounds the handwashing failures. Raw sewage carries fecal pathogens. A facility where sewage is not properly managed and where handwashing facilities are simultaneously inadequate has removed two consecutive barriers against fecal-oral transmission.
The time-as-a-public-health-control violation means the kitchen was not properly tracking how long food spent in the temperature danger zone, the range between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit where bacteria double roughly every 20 minutes. That citation, combined with the undercooking citation, means food at Ferraro's Kitchen may have entered the danger zone and never left it at a temperature sufficient to destroy what had grown.
The Longer Record
Ferraro's Kitchen: Inspection History
The October 6 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Ferraro's Kitchen has been inspected 22 times and has accumulated 164 total violations. Every inspection in the past two years has produced high-severity citations.
The April 2025 inspection produced 9 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. The March 2026 inspection produced 6 high-severity violations. The October 2024 inspection produced 7 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. The pattern across those dates is consistent: high-severity violations at every visit, with counts that fluctuate but never reach zero.
The facility has never been emergency-closed. October 6 was its worst single inspection on record, with 11 high-severity citations documented in one visit. The restaurant was open for business when the inspector arrived, and it remained open after the inspector left.
