HIALEAH GARDENS, FL. State inspectors visiting Jama Benn Jama at 10000 NW 138th Street on April 20 found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, no procedures in place to destroy parasites in fish or pork, and food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized — seven high-severity violations in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The two chemical violations together describe a kitchen where cleaning agents or other toxic substances were neither properly labeled nor kept away from food preparation areas. Inspectors cited both improper storage and labeling as one violation and improper identification, storage, and use as a second, separate violation.
The parasite destruction citation means the restaurant had no documented procedures confirming that fish or pork served to customers had been frozen or cooked to temperatures sufficient to kill parasites including Anisakis in fish and Trichinella in pork.
Food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that touch the food a customer eats, were cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also found no written employee health policy, meaning there was no formal mechanism to keep sick workers away from food preparation, and documented that handwashing technique was improper, leaving pathogens on hands even when a wash was attempted.
Two intermediate violations rounded out the report: inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The two chemical violations are among the most immediately dangerous findings in a food service inspection. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and mislabeled containers create the risk that a worker uses the wrong substance on a food contact surface or in a food product. The result can be acute chemical poisoning in customers, with symptoms appearing within minutes of ingestion.
The parasite destruction failure is a slower but equally serious risk. When a restaurant serves fish such as sushi-grade varieties or undercooked pork without verified freezing or cooking protocols, parasites can survive and infect customers. Anisakis larvae in fish cause severe abdominal pain and can require surgical removal. Trichinella in pork causes trichinellosis, a disease that can damage the heart and nervous system.
The combination of improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and a failed handwashing technique creates a direct pathway for bacteria to move from raw protein to ready-to-eat food. Cutting boards and prep surfaces that carry residual contamination from a previous item transfer that contamination to the next item placed on them, regardless of what that item is.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods is a specific danger for elderly customers, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system. These groups face the highest risk of serious illness from pathogens that a healthy adult might survive with mild symptoms. Without a menu advisory, they have no way to make an informed choice.
The Longer Record
The April 20 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Jama Benn Jama has been inspected ten times going back to September 2022, and every single inspection has produced high-severity violations.
The facility's worst prior inspection on record came in September 2025, when inspectors cited eight high-severity violations and four intermediate violations in a single visit. That visit produced more high-severity findings than any inspection before or since until the April 2026 visit matched the 2022 count of seven. The March 2025 inspection found five high-severity violations. The two October 2024 inspections, both conducted on the same day, produced six high-severity and four high-severity violations respectively.
Across all ten inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 117 total violations. It has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern is consistent enough to be its own finding. Six of the ten inspections produced five or more high-severity violations. No inspection in the facility's recorded history has come back clean or near-clean. The categories shift slightly from visit to visit, but the severity level does not.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Toxic chemicals near food, no parasite controls, improperly sanitized surfaces, and a kitchen without a functioning employee illness policy are the conditions inspectors documented at Jama Benn Jama on April 20, 2026.
The restaurant was not closed.
It had not been closed after the September 2025 inspection either, when eight high-severity violations were on the books. Or after the February 2024 inspection. Or after any of the ten inspections stretching back to 2022.
Jama Benn Jama remained open for business after the April 20 visit, with 117 violations across a four-year inspection record and no emergency closure on file.