HIALEAH, FL. Inspectors visiting La Guajira Pizzeria Cubana at 1905 W 60th Street on July 17, 2026 found food from an unapproved or unknown source being served to customers, one of eight high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
Food from unapproved sources means no paper trail. If a customer gets sick, there is no supplier to trace, no lot number to pull, no recall to issue.
What Inspectors Found
The July 17 inspection produced 11 violations in total, eight of them high-severity. Beyond the unknown food sourcing, inspectors cited the kitchen for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. Undercooked poultry that has not reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit can carry live Salmonella.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, creating a direct pathway for bacteria to transfer from prep surface to plate. Inspectors wrote up handwashing violations twice: once for employees not washing adequately, and a second time for improper technique, meaning employees who did attempt to wash their hands did not do so correctly.
The remaining high-severity violations clustered around illness reporting. There was no written employee health policy on site. Employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. And no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties.
That last violation is significant on its own. CDC data consistently links the absence of active managerial control to higher rates of critical violations. On July 17, every one of the above problems unfolded without a manager on the floor to catch or correct them.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. Approved suppliers are required to meet USDA and FDA inspection standards, which means their products can be traced if contamination is detected. When a restaurant uses an unknown source, that chain breaks entirely. If a customer develops a Listeria or Salmonella infection after eating at La Guajira Pizzeria Cubana, investigators would have no supplier records to examine.
The handwashing citations compounded the risk. Improper handwashing is considered the single most significant factor in spreading foodborne illness. Two separate violations on the same day, one for frequency and one for technique, indicate this was not an isolated lapse.
The employee illness violations are acutely dangerous in a food-service setting. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses annually in the United States, spreads most efficiently when a sick food worker handles ready-to-eat food without reporting symptoms. The absence of a written health policy means there is no formal mechanism requiring employees to disclose illness before their shift begins.
Taken together, unknown food source, undercooked food, contaminated prep surfaces, and no illness reporting protocol describe a kitchen with multiple simultaneous failure points on the same afternoon.
The Longer Record
The July 17 inspection was not an aberration. State records show 22 inspections on file for La Guajira Pizzeria Cubana, with 113 total violations accumulated across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity violations stretches back through every recent inspection. In August 2025, inspectors found six high-severity violations. In February 2025, five. In November 2024, five more. In March 2024, three.
After the July 17 inspection logged eight high-severity violations, inspectors returned three days later on July 20 and found five high-severity and two intermediate violations, then returned again the same day and found four high-severity and two intermediate violations. A follow-up on July 22 still produced three high-severity violations.
That sequence, four inspections in six days and high-severity violations at every one of them, is the record. The restaurant has not been closed once across 22 inspections and 113 documented violations.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine an immediate threat to public health exists. Eight high-severity violations on July 17, including food from an unknown source and food not cooked to minimum temperature, did not meet that threshold at La Guajira Pizzeria Cubana.
Three days later, with five high-severity violations still on the books, it remained open. Five days later, three more high-severity violations. The restaurant is still operating.
