MIAMI, FL. A state inspector walked into Luis Galindo Latin American 2 on SW 24th Street on September 29 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning no federal safety inspection had ever touched what was being served to customers that day.
That was one of 12 high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is not a paperwork problem. Food that bypasses USDA and FDA inspection has no traceable origin. If a customer gets sick, there is no supply chain to trace, no lot number to pull, no farm to notify.
Inspectors also found that no employee health policy existed and that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where a worker could show up sick with Norovirus and have no obligation to say anything about it.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled, and a separate citation noted toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used. Two distinct chemical violations in the same inspection, both flagged at the highest severity level.
The inspector also cited inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning shellfish served at the restaurant, which may be consumed raw or lightly cooked, could not be traced to a licensed harvester. Parasite destruction procedures were not followed, a violation that applies to raw or undercooked fish, pork, and wild game. No consumer advisory was posted to warn customers that any of this food was being served undercooked.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Time as a public health control was not properly used, meaning food was allowed to sit in the temperature danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees without proper documentation or limits.
Eight intermediate violations accompanied the twelve high-severity ones. They included improper sewage or wastewater disposal, improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, inadequate cooling equipment, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting. Toilet facilities were also cited as inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee illness policy, no illness reporting, and improper handwashing technique is not three separate problems. It is one compounding failure. A sick employee has no written policy telling them to stay home, no reporting obligation if they come in anyway, and no corrected technique to reduce transmission even if they try to be careful. That is a direct route from a sick food worker to a customer's plate.
The food sourcing violation carries a specific consequence that most customers never consider. When food comes from an unapproved source, there is no paper trail connecting it to a licensed processor or a federal inspection. If someone who ate at Luis Galindo Latin American 2 on September 29 developed a Salmonella or Listeria infection, investigators would have nowhere to start.
The parasite destruction failure and the missing consumer advisory compound each other. Proper freezing protocols, applied before serving raw or undercooked fish, kill parasites including Anisakis, which causes severe abdominal pain and can require surgical removal. Without that step, and without a menu advisory telling customers the food is undercooked, a diner with no idea they are at risk is the last line of defense.
Two separate chemical storage violations at the highest severity level in a single inspection means inspectors found chemicals near food or food contact surfaces in more than one location, or found them mislabeled in a way that created distinct contamination risks. Either scenario describes conditions where a customer could ingest a cleaning agent without anyone in the kitchen knowing it had happened.
The Longer Record
Luis Galindo Latin American 2: Inspection Pattern, 2024-2026
State records show 33 inspections on file for this location, with 466 total violations documented across that history. Every inspection in the available recent record found high-severity violations. Not a single one came back clean.
The September 29 inspection was the worst on the recent record, but the follow-up visit the next day, September 30, still found five high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. Whatever corrections were made overnight, five of the most serious category of problems remained.
This is not a restaurant that accumulated 466 violations over decades and then corrected course. The pattern across 2024, 2025, and 2026 is consistent: high-severity violations at every visit, intermediate violations at nearly every visit, and counts that have not trended downward. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
After 12 high-severity violations on September 29, 2026, Luis Galindo Latin American 2 on SW 24th Street served customers the following day.
