A Miami-area supermarket threw out 600 pounds of seafood and 1,300 pounds of meat after a state inspection found over 2,000 pounds of food unfit for sale. The inspection also forced the North Miami store to halt all food processing.
Despite the violations documented during Friday’s visit from Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors, customers continued shopping Wednesday at Delma’s Supermarket on NE 125th Street.
While these inspectors can’t shut down a business the way restaurant regulators can, they can issue Stop Sale and Stop Use Orders—and they issued plenty. Heavy dirt and debris were found on the outside of the store’s ice machine, while the inside had mold-like buildup. Inspectors immediately placed a Stop Use Order on the machine, ruling the ice “unsanitary.”
Because the seafood in a reach-in cooler was sitting on ice from that contaminated machine, inspectors ordered Stop Sales on 600 pounds of fish, salmon, shrimp, conch, and other seafood. The cooler itself was also taken out of service after its door separated from the unit.
In the meat processing area, leaking condenser pipes dripped water onto food below, resulting in Stop Use Orders for the cooler and Stop Sales on about 1,386 pounds of turkey, chicken, beef, pork, goat, and oxtail.
Another customer-accessible cooler held salted cod, pollock, herring, and mackerel, all above the safe temperature of 41 degrees. This was labeled temperature abuse, and inspectors ordered Stop Sales on all of it. More fish products under a prep table measured between 58 and 60 degrees—also discarded.
Inspectors couldn’t verify the source of several prepackaged items, including bread, cookies, cake, and pikliz, so all were thrown away. They also found numerous small flying insects in the produce and prep areas.
The store was operating without a valid food permit. One in-use knife was crusted with old food debris and stored improperly between a table and a wall. A live roach found on a broom led to a Stop Use Order on all open food processing and equipment. Several shelves throughout the store had old debris and food residue, and a walk-in cooler had a leaking pipe.
The water heater wasn’t supplying hot water to all sinks, though it was replaced during the inspection. The employee restroom door was left open and faced a produce prep table, violating food safety rules. The store was given 90 days to fix this issue or face additional Stop Use Orders.
Inspectors also saw poor food-handling practices: an employee reused the same gloves while packing meat and operating the scale, another wasn’t wearing proper hair restraint, wiping cloths were left out instead of in sanitizer, and a heavily worn cutting board was taken out of service.
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