WEST MIAMI, FL. State inspectors visiting Happy Wine at 5792 SW 8 Street on May 13, 2026 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, food in poor or adulterated condition, undercooked food, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, inadequate shellfish traceability records, and improper handwashing technique. That is six high-severity violations documented in a single inspection. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The most alarming single finding was food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers. When food enters a kitchen through channels outside the regulated supply chain, there is no USDA or FDA inspection record attached to it. If a customer becomes ill, there is no paper trail to trace the food back to its origin.
Inspectors also cited undercooked food. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a single serving of undercooked chicken can be enough to cause serious illness.
The shellfish violation adds another layer of concern. Oysters, clams, and mussels are often consumed raw or lightly cooked, making traceability records the primary safety backstop if an outbreak occurs. Without proper shell stock identification, there is no way to determine where the shellfish came from or pull it from the supply chain if contamination is reported.
Improper sewage disposal was cited as an intermediate violation, but the risk attached to it is not minor. Raw sewage carries pathogens capable of contaminating surfaces, equipment, and food throughout a facility.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. It means that whatever Happy Wine received through that channel was never inspected by federal or state food safety authorities. If it was contaminated with Listeria or Salmonella, no one in the supply chain would know. And if a customer got sick, investigators would have nowhere to start.
Undercooking is among the most direct routes to a foodborne illness outbreak. The violation at Happy Wine means food reached customers without hitting the internal temperature required to kill pathogens. That is not a near-miss; that is a completed failure in the cooking process.
Improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, combined with improper handwashing technique, means that bacteria introduced at any point in food preparation can be transferred to every dish that follows. Bacterial biofilms on utensils, which the intermediate violation for multi-use utensils also flags, can protect bacteria from standard cleaning agents once they establish on a surface.
The sewage violation matters because fecal contamination is not contained to a single area of a kitchen. It can move through foot traffic, airflow, and direct contact with food and food preparation surfaces.
The Longer Record
The May 13 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Happy Wine has been inspected 22 times and has accumulated 139 violations in total. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern going back to early 2024 is consistent. In September 2024, inspectors found 5 high-severity violations. In January 2025, they found 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate ones, the worst single inspection in the facility's recent record. By April 2025, inspectors were back citing 5 high-severity violations again. By October 2025, another inspection produced 5 high-severity violations.
The four inspections between October 2025 and April 2026 each produced just 1 high-severity violation, which might suggest improvement. Then came the May 13, 2026 inspection, which produced 6 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations in a single visit.
Food from unapproved sources and shellfish traceability failures are not the kind of violations that appear because a trash can lid is missing or a floor tile is cracked. They reflect decisions about where food comes from and how it is tracked.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure standard requires inspectors to determine that a facility poses an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations at Happy Wine on May 13 did not meet that threshold, at least not in the judgment of the inspector on site that day.
The facility's 22-inspection record includes zero emergency closures.
Happy Wine remained open after inspectors left on May 13, 2026.