CUTLER BAY, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly alongside food at Tejas de Honduras on SW 106th Avenue when a state inspector visited on August 12, one of nine high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant remained open.
The August 12 inspection produced a total of 13 violations, nine of them high-severity, four intermediate. State records show the restaurant has accumulated 325 violations across 28 inspections on record, and has been emergency-closed twice.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector found no person in charge present or performing duties, no written employee health policy, and employees not reporting symptoms of illness. Those three violations appeared together on the same inspection report.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils had not been properly cleaned, and single-use items were being reused. The restroom facilities were inadequate or improperly maintained.
Employees were cited both for inadequate handwashing and for improper hand and arm washing technique, a combination that means attempts at hand hygiene were happening but not working. The facility also lacked adequate handwashing infrastructure to support proper technique in the first place.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms is the condition most directly associated with multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, spreads almost entirely through infected food workers who continue preparing food. Without a written policy requiring workers to report symptoms, there is no mechanism to remove a sick employee before food is contaminated.
The handwashing violations compound that risk significantly. When employees are cited for both inadequate handwashing and improper technique, it means the contamination pathway from worker to food was open on both ends. Pathogens that survive on hands because of poor technique transfer directly to food contact surfaces, and the citation for improperly cleaned food contact surfaces at Tejas de Honduras confirms those surfaces were not being sanitized between uses.
Toxic chemicals stored improperly near food represent a separate and acute hazard. Mislabeled or misplaced cleaning agents can contaminate food directly, and the symptoms of chemical poisoning, including nausea, vomiting, and respiratory distress, can be mistaken for other illnesses, delaying the identification of a source.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods is a quieter violation but a meaningful one. Customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or caring for young children rely on that disclosure to make informed choices. Without it, they have no way to know a dish carries elevated risk.
The Longer Record
The August 12 inspection was not an outlier. State records show the restaurant was also inspected on November 13, 2025, when inspectors documented nine high-severity and three intermediate violations, a figure identical to the August 12 count. The inspection on March 9, 2026 produced eight high-severity violations.
Tejas de Honduras: Recent Inspection Pattern
The follow-up inspection the day after the August 12 visit, on August 13, still found four high-severity violations and one intermediate. That means roughly half the high-severity violations from the day before had not been corrected within 24 hours.
Across 28 inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 325 total violations. The restaurant has been emergency-closed twice: once on August 12, 2026 for roach activity, and once on March 3, 2020 for sewage leaks. Both times it was allowed to reopen within a day.
The pattern across the past eight inspections shows high-severity violation counts that have never dropped to zero on a follow-up visit. Every follow-up in the record still carried high-severity citations.
Open for Business
State records show that despite nine high-severity violations documented on August 12, the restaurant was not emergency-closed on the basis of those violations. The closure that day was triggered by roach activity. The nine high-severity violations, including improperly stored toxic chemicals, no illness reporting policy, and contaminated food contact surfaces, did not themselves result in a closure order.
The restaurant reopened on August 13. Four high-severity violations were still on the books.
