HIALEAH, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly at Panaderia Colombiana Mi Cali at 2350 W. 60th Street when state inspectors arrived on August 24, placing them near food in a facility that had no written employee health policy, no system for workers to report illness symptoms, and documented failures in handwashing technique.
Inspectors logged 11 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate violations that day. The bakery was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violations were among the most acute findings. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food can cause acute poisoning through direct contamination, and the risk compounds when workers cannot distinguish cleaning agents from food-grade products by sight.
Two separate high-severity citations covered chemical hazards: one for improper storage or labeling, and a second for improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances. That the same category generated two distinct violations in a single inspection suggests the problem was not isolated to one shelf or one container.
The illness reporting failures were documented at three levels simultaneously. The bakery had no written employee health policy, no system in place for workers to report symptoms, and the person in charge was either absent or not performing managerial duties during the inspection. Those three findings together mean that on August 24, there was no mechanism at this facility to keep a sick employee out of the kitchen.
Food contact surfaces were also cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors additionally found that time as a public health control was not being used correctly, that shellfish identification records were inadequate, and that there was no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. On the intermediate side, inspectors documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, improper sanitizing solutions or procedures, single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting cluster carries the most direct risk to anyone who ate at the bakery around the time of the inspection. Without a written health policy and without a supervisor present to enforce it, a worker showing symptoms of Norovirus or Salmonella has no formal barrier between themselves and the food they are preparing. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are its most efficient transmission route.
The handwashing violations add a second pathway. Two separate high-severity citations covered handwashing: one for inadequate handwashing overall, and a second for improper technique. The distinction matters. A worker who attempts to wash their hands but uses the wrong technique leaves pathogens on their hands that will transfer directly to food or surfaces. Both violations were present here.
The chemical storage findings represent a different category of danger entirely. Mislabeled or improperly stored chemicals create the possibility of contamination that customers would have no way to detect. Acute chemical poisoning from food does not require repeated exposure.
The sewage disposal violation, logged as intermediate, carries its own severity. Improper wastewater disposal creates the possibility of fecal contamination spreading through the facility, reaching surfaces, utensils, and food that workers then handle.
The Longer Record
August 24 was not an anomaly. State records show 28 inspections on file for this address, with 414 total violations documented across that history and no prior emergency closures.
The pattern in the recent inspection record is difficult to dismiss as coincidence. Inspectors found 10 high-severity violations on August 29, 2025, and again on February 13, 2025. Eight high-severity violations were recorded on December 2, 2024. Eleven high-severity violations appeared on June 26, 2024, matching the count from August 24 of this year exactly.
Two days after the August 24 inspection, inspectors returned. That follow-up visit on August 26 produced 5 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate violations. The facility had not been closed in between.
The January 2026 inspection showed only 1 high-severity violation, the lowest count in recent years. That visit came eight days after a January 13 inspection that had found 5 high-severity violations. The brief improvement did not hold. By August 2026, the facility was back at 11 high-severity citations in a single visit.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented 11 high-severity violations at Panaderia Colombiana Mi Cali on August 24, including toxic chemicals improperly stored near food, no mechanism to keep sick workers out of the kitchen, and failures at every stage of the handwashing process.
The facility was not emergency-closed.
Records show it has never been emergency-closed, across 28 inspections and 414 documented violations.
