Condenser dripping on exposed meat and ice machine mold found at Miami-Dade supermarket

Marinated meat moisturized by liquid dripping from a condenser and utensils and cookware not being sanitized were among the problems state inspectors found at a West Miami-Dade supermarket.

The Bravo Supermarket at 13659 SW 26th St. remained open after Tuesday’s failed state inspection. Unlike restaurant inspectors, who work for a different agency, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services inspectors can’t outright shut down an establishment after a failed inspection. They can, however, put enough Stop Use Orders on equipment or areas that make it impossible or impractical for the establishment to open.

Inspectors Wenndy Ayerdis and Margaret Alvarez didn’t have to pull that many Stop Use Orders out of their holsters, but they did drop a few. Here are some of the problems they found.

▪ The meat food service area lacked a splash guard between the sanitizer section of the warewash sink — where cookware gets washed — and the meat-cutting prep table. That means if cookware washing gets too splashy, the prep table could get sauced by sanitizer before or while meat is placed on it for cutting.

▪ “Liquid leaking from the meat display condensing unit was falling directly onto the uncovered marinated raw meats.”

That drew a Stop Sale on the meat with condenser drippings and a Stop Use Order on the meat display unit.

▪ All food-contact equipment, cookware washing and open processing in the meat department got put on hold by a Stop Use Order because “no handwash sink was available in the meat food service area for employees to wash hands prior to handling exposed meats for customer orders.”

▪ Still in the meat department, a “direct connection exists” between the warewash sink drain line and the store’s sewage system. Why is this a problem? Well, it isn’t a problem until there’s a sewage system backup. That’s when the warewash sink becomes a sewage sink.

▪ The meat department foam trays for holding fresh meat also weren’t kept in their original packaging, safe from contamination.

The owner of this Bravo, by the way, is J H Meat Corp., which state records say is run by President Jose Torres, Vice President Juan Espino and Secretary Fredys Torres.

READ MORE: Miami stone crab seller doesn’t control pathogenic bacteria growth, inspection says

▪ In the kitchen and deli areas of a supermarket that sells paper towels, “No paper towels were provided at the handwash sinks.”

▪ Maybe that’s why “food employees did not wash their hands between entering and exiting the various food processing areas and prior to donning gloves to handle food items for customer orders.”

▪ The hot holding unit with the cooked pork shoulder and rotisserie chickens “was found in disrepair with an ambient temperature of 110 degrees.” That’s a problem since the unit’s job is to keep the food at 135 degrees or higher.

So, Stop Sales rained on the pork shoulder and the rotisserie chicken; the mashed green plantains in the steam table that measured 120 to 134 degrees; plus ground beef, shredded beef, chicken empanadas, cheese and guava tequeños, and cheese tequeños, all of which measured 110 to 125 degrees in the pastry hot unit.

READ MORE: Rodents gnawed into sugar and tortilla bags in South Florida restaurants

▪ In the deli area, wet wiping cloths were “placed on the various preparation tables, not held in sanitizer solution between uses.”

▪ Also in the deli area, “open packages of hams in the deli display cold unit were found with incorrect date markings, with all products having the original date of opening changed to (Tuesday’s) date.”

READ MORE: Equipment that couldn’t be washed or sanitized got a Hialeah food distributor shut down

▪ An ice machine had “black, mold-like grime encrusted on the interior.”

▪ The inspectors said the kitchen utensils, a bowl, and pots and pans were washed and rinsed but not sanitized.

▪ “Deep, black grooves” were found on multiple cutting boards. A Stop Use Order took the cutting boards out of action.

▪ There also wasn’t a “consumer advisory and disclosure posted on store-made deli ham spread containing raw egg mayonnaise” in the retail cold unit accessible to customers.