MIAMI, FL. State inspectors visiting La Guadalupana Ice Cream Inc. on SW 1st Street in April found that the shop was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, had no written employee health policy, and had no person in charge present or performing duties, yet the facility was allowed to remain open.
The April 20 inspection produced 6 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate violations, a combined 12 citations that touched nearly every layer of food safety, from sourcing to sanitation to management.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation stands out. When food enters a facility from an unapproved or unknown source, it has bypassed USDA and FDA inspection systems entirely. There is no documentation, no traceability, and no way to identify the origin if a customer becomes ill.
Inspectors also found that the shop was using time as a public health control without following proper protocols. In facilities that use time rather than temperature to keep food safe, food is permitted to sit in the bacterial growth zone between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit for a defined window before being discarded. When that system is not properly documented or followed, food can remain in that danger zone indefinitely with no one tracking it.
Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned, and single-use items were being reused. Inspectors also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, a citation that signals potential fecal contamination risk throughout the facility.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and no employee illness reporting is particularly direct in its risk. Without a written policy, workers have no formal instruction about when to stay home. Without a reporting requirement, a worker with Norovirus or Salmonella can continue handling food and serving customers with no mechanism to stop them. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are a primary transmission route.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties compounds every other violation on the list. CDC data shows that establishments without active managerial control have three times more critical violations. At La Guadalupana, the inspection found not just one critical gap but six, in a facility with no one present who was actively overseeing operations.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the fourth high-severity citation, create a direct bacterial transfer route. Surfaces that contact ice cream, scoops, or serving containers and are not sanitized between uses carry bacteria from one customer's serving to the next.
The Longer Record
This inspection does not represent a new low for La Guadalupana. It represents a continuation of a pattern that records show stretching back years.
The facility has 21 inspections on record and 229 total violations documented. In July 2024, inspectors found 9 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations during a single visit. That July inspection was followed two days later by a follow-up that still produced 3 high-severity citations. In March 2025, inspectors returned and found 8 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations. In November 2025, a visit found 3 high-severity violations, followed the next day by a callback inspection that cleared the high-severity count to zero.
The April 2026 inspection returned 6 high-severity violations, including the same foundational management failures, employee health, person in charge, and food sourcing, that have appeared across multiple prior visits. The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection record.
The shop has accumulated 229 violations across 21 inspections, an average of nearly 11 violations per visit. Eight of those inspections produced 3 or more high-severity citations. The categories repeat: management control, employee health practices, food handling, equipment condition.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine an immediate threat to public health exists. On April 20, inspectors at La Guadalupana documented food of unknown origin, no illness reporting system, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and wastewater disposal problems.
The shop was not closed.
Customers who visited La Guadalupana on SW 1st Street on or after April 20 had no way of knowing any of this from the storefront.