MIAMI, FL. A state inspector walked into Tiago's Tacos on SW 160th Street on June 12 and found employees who had not reported illness symptoms to management, a violation that health officials call the number-one driver of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks.
That was one of eleven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector cited employees for both inadequate handwashing and improper handwashing technique, two separate violations that together indicate workers were either skipping handwashing or performing it incorrectly even when they did attempt it. Those two citations appeared alongside the failure to report illness symptoms, a combination that describes a direct, unbroken pathway for a sick employee's pathogens to reach a customer's plate.
Food was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and the record does not indicate what specific items were undercooked.
Parasite destruction procedures were not being followed. That citation applies to fish, pork, and wild game, and requires either sufficient cooking temperatures or a verified freezing protocol. Without it, parasites including Anisakis in fish and Trichinella in pork can survive to the point of consumption.
The inspector also cited improper storage or use of toxic substances, a violation that carries immediate risk of chemical contamination of food or food contact surfaces. Food contact surfaces themselves were cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Two additional high-severity violations involved shellfish. The restaurant lacked adequate shell stock identification records, meaning there was no traceability for oysters, clams, or mussels if a customer became ill. A separate citation noted that no consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked items, leaving customers with no way to make an informed decision about the risk.
The intermediate violations added further concern. Sewage or wastewater was not being properly disposed of, a condition that introduces fecal contamination risk throughout the facility. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned. Cold holding equipment was inadequate, meaning the physical infrastructure to keep food safe was itself failing.
Fourteen violations in a single visit. The restaurant remained open.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is worth dwelling on. When a food worker has norovirus and continues handling food without reporting symptoms, a single shift can expose dozens of customers. Norovirus spreads through contact with contaminated surfaces and food, and it takes fewer than 20 viral particles to cause infection. The failure at Tiago's Tacos was not a paperwork issue. It was a gap in the one system designed to stop a sick employee from becoming a public health event.
The handwashing citations compound that risk directly. Inspectors cited both the adequacy of handwashing and the technique used, meaning the problem was documented at two levels. A worker who attempts to wash hands but does so incorrectly still transfers pathogens. Combined with the illness-reporting failure, these three violations describe a facility where contaminated hands were in contact with food with no reliable intervention.
The undercooking and parasite destruction citations add a second independent pathway to illness. A customer who ordered fish or poultry on June 12 had no assurance that either had reached a temperature sufficient to kill Salmonella, Anisakis, or Trichinella. The shellfish traceability failure means that if someone became ill from oysters or clams served that day, investigators would have no records to trace the source.
Improperly stored toxic substances represent a different category of harm entirely. Chemical contamination from cleaners or pesticides stored near food does not require a pathogen. It requires only a spill or a mislabeled container.
The Longer Record
June 12 was not the first difficult inspection at this address. State records show five prior inspections going back to February 2024, and the pattern across those visits is one of escalation, not correction.
The earliest inspection on record, in February 2024, produced zero high-severity violations and one intermediate. Eight months later, in October 2024, there was one high-severity violation. By February 2025, there were two. By October 2025, three.
Then the count jumped. The March 2026 inspection, just three months before June 12, produced nine high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. The June inspection exceeded that, reaching eleven high-severity citations and three intermediate ones.
Across all six inspections, the facility has accumulated 52 total violations on record. It has never been emergency-closed.
The Facility Remained Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Eleven high-severity violations, including sick employees handling food, undercooking, improper toxic storage, and sewage disposal failures, did not meet that threshold on June 12.
The record shows a facility that logged zero high-severity violations two years ago and now logs them by the dozen. The most recent inspection documented more serious violations than any prior visit in its history.
Tiago's Tacos on SW 160th Street was open for business after the inspector left.