MIAMI, FL. A food worker at Marakas Pizza Restaurant on SW 42nd Street was not reporting symptoms of illness to management, state inspectors documented on September 1, a violation that health officials classify as the leading cause of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks.
That was one of six high-severity violations recorded during the inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection also cited the restaurant for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures. That violation applies when fish, pork, or wild game is served raw or undercooked without the required freezing protocols designed to kill organisms like Anisakis roundworm and Trichinella.
Shellfish records were inadequate. Inspectors found the restaurant could not properly identify the source of its shell stock, meaning oysters, clams, or mussels on the menu lacked the traceability documentation required by state law.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a violation that creates a direct pathway for bacteria to move from surface to food. The restaurant was also cited for misusing time as a public health control, which occurs when food is left in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, longer than the strict time limits that substitute for refrigeration. And the menu contained raw or undercooked items with no consumer advisory posted to warn customers.
The single intermediate violation involved single-use items being reused, a practice that defeats the contamination barrier those items are designed to provide.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting violation is not a paperwork issue. When a food worker with norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A continues handling food without alerting management, every plate that leaves the kitchen is a potential exposure. Norovirus in particular spreads with extraordinary efficiency through food contact, and a single infected worker has been the documented source of outbreaks affecting dozens of customers at a time.
The parasite destruction failure compounds that risk for anyone who ordered fish. Florida restaurants that serve raw or undercooked fish are required to use commercially frozen product or to freeze fish to specific temperatures for specific durations before service. Without that step, parasites that survive in raw fish tissue reach the customer's plate intact.
The shellfish traceability violation matters most after someone gets sick. Shell stock tags are the chain of custody that allows health investigators to trace an illness back to a specific harvest bed and pull product from other restaurants before more people are exposed. Without those records at Marakas Pizza, that chain breaks entirely.
The consumer advisory absence is a legal and ethical failure together. Florida requires restaurants to disclose on menus when items are served raw or undercooked, specifically so that pregnant women, elderly customers, and people with compromised immune systems can make an informed choice. None of those customers had that information on September 1.
The Longer Record
The September 1 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Marakas Pizza has been inspected 28 times and has accumulated 377 total violations across its history, a figure that averages more than 13 violations per inspection visit.
The pattern of high-severity findings is consistent and recent. On March 31, 2026, five months before this inspection, the restaurant logged six high violations and six intermediate violations. On September 8, 2025, inspectors documented 11 high violations and five intermediate violations in a single visit. A clean inspection the following day, September 9, 2025, showed zero high or intermediate violations, suggesting the restaurant can meet standards when it chooses to.
The July and August 2024 inspections told the same story. Eight high violations in July, six in August, each followed eventually by a visit with fewer citations. The cycle repeats: serious violations, a corrective inspection, then serious violations again.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. That record held after September 1.
Still Open
State inspectors classified six of the seven violations found on September 1 as high severity. That category is reserved for conditions that directly endanger public health, not cracked tiles or missing signage.
An employee was working without reporting illness symptoms. Shellfish on the menu could not be traced to its source. Fish may have reached customers without the parasite controls required by law. Food contact surfaces were not properly sanitized. Time controls designed to prevent bacterial growth were not being followed correctly. Customers ordering raw or undercooked items were not warned.
Marakas Pizza Restaurant remained open after the inspection.
