DORAL, FL. Inspectors visiting Sano Food at 10712 NW 74th Street on August 26 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning that if someone got sick, there would be no traceable supply chain to identify the origin or recall the product.
That was one of eight high-severity violations documented that day. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
Inspectors also cited parasite destruction procedures not being followed. That violation applies to fish, pork, and wild game that must be frozen or cooked to specific temperatures before serving, to kill parasites including Anisakis in fish and Trichinella in pork. It appeared alongside a separate citation for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food. That is not a housekeeping issue. Mislabeled or misplaced chemicals near food preparation surfaces are a direct contamination pathway that can cause acute poisoning.
Employees were cited for both inadequate handwashing and improper handwashing technique. Those are two distinct violations. The first means handwashing was not happening when it should have been. The second means that when it did happen, it was done incorrectly. Inspectors also found no adequate employee health policy, meaning there was no formal mechanism to keep sick workers out of food preparation.
Four intermediate violations accompanied the eight high-severity ones: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, improper sanitizing solution or procedures, inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is among the most consequential violations a food facility can receive, not because the food is necessarily contaminated, but because there is no way to know if it is. Approved suppliers are registered, inspected, and traceable. If a customer at Sano Food became ill from a product with no documented origin, public health investigators would have nowhere to start.
The undercooking and parasite destruction violations compound that risk. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Parasites in fish survive without adequate freezing or cooking. Both violations appearing in the same inspection, at a facility that also sourced food from unknown suppliers, means the safety gaps stacked on top of each other.
The handwashing citations deserve their own weight. Improper handwashing is the single most common pathway for spreading foodborne illness, including Norovirus, which causes an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States annually. The fact that inspectors cited both the frequency and the technique means the problem was not incidental. It was systemic.
Improperly stored toxic chemicals near food round out the picture. This violation is less common than temperature or sanitation failures, and its presence alongside seven other high-severity citations points to a kitchen operating without consistent safety oversight.
The Longer Record
The August 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Sano Food has been inspected 22 times and has accumulated 172 total violations across that history. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The most recent inspections before August 2026 show a facility that has never had a clean record. The December 2025 visit produced 4 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. The July 2025 visit produced 4 high-severity and 1 intermediate. March 2025 produced 5 high-severity and 2 intermediate. December 2024 produced 4 high-severity and 2 intermediate.
The worst single inspection on record before August 2026 was July 2022, when inspectors cited 10 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. August 2026, at 8 high-severity violations, is the second-highest single-inspection total in the facility's documented history.
There is no inspection in the prior record that shows zero high-severity violations. Every visit on record has produced at least two. That is not a pattern of a facility that occasionally slips. It is a facility that has never, across 22 inspections, been found fully in compliance on the most serious category of violations.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Eight high-severity violations at Sano Food on August 26, including unapproved food sources, undercooking, parasite risk, and improperly stored toxic chemicals, did not meet that threshold.
The facility remained open after the inspection.
State records show it has remained open after every inspection in its documented history, including the July 2022 visit that produced 10 high-severity violations.
Anyone who ate at Sano Food in the days surrounding August 26 did so without knowing that inspectors had found, in the same visit, food of unknown origin, food not cooked to required temperatures, and chemicals stored improperly near food preparation areas.
