Ancient food among the inspection problems at a Milam’s Market near Coral Gables
Food way too old, too warm, too cold and too old for safe serving and handwashing issues caused a West Miami-Dade Milam’s Market to fail an inspection.
Though Milam’s calls the store at 5767 Bird Rd. “Coral Gables (West),” it’s actually in the Redbird Center strip mall across the street from Coral Gables. Whether or not Florida Department of Agriculture inspectors Wenndy Ayerdis and Lourdes Chantez knew where they were as far as property tax, they knew what wasn’t right in the store when they stopped by Tuesday.
The food employees in the deli, meat, seafood and kitchen areas, “did not wash hands between entering and exiting the various processing areas to handle clean utensils/equipment/food items and prior to donning gloves to work with open foods.”
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Food employees in the kitchen and produce areas “did not change gloves after touching faces and handling clean utensils/food or between changing tasks (serving food, leaving processing area and returning to continue working with food).” Those are single-use gloves.
A fly landed on uncovered cantaloupe that was sitting on a prep table. That got a Stop Sale on the cantaloupe.
A tray of meatballs sat uncovered in the meat department’s walk-in cooler.
“Black, mold-like grime was encrusted on the ice-making portion and chute of the ice machine” in the seafood area.
The “metal cup used for heating milk at the coffee machine was not washed, rinsed, and sanitized after more than four hours of use.” It doesn’t matter if you don’t do it at home. That’s your business. It’s supposed to be done here.
The deli area contained bologna that had been open since Aug. 26 — meaning it should’ve been thrown out Sept. 2; plus turkey that should’ve been tossed on Sept. 9. Stop Sale on both. Basura.
In the kitchen, tuna salad sat in the walk-in cooler with a end of shift date of Sept. 8. Stop Sale on the tuna salad.
As for the seafood area, there was no splash guard between the handwash sink and the prep table with the meat tenderizer. There was the same problem in the cafe area between the handwash sink and the tea dispenser/coffee syrup next to the coffee machine.
Outside, “multiple pallets of bottled water stored near a shipping container protected only with a tarp from inclement weather and pests.”
Trays of boiled potatoes, sitting in the kitchen’s walk-in cooler since Sept. 6, measured too warm and got hit with a Stop Sale.
“Multiple sandwiches made and packaged in the morning and placed directly into the retail cold unit measured 50 degrees.” They needed to be at or under 41 degrees.. Stop sale on 15 sandwiches.
Pecan chicken salad and walnut chicken salad made the prior day and in the walk-in cooler also weren’t cool enough.
Hash browns and croquetas in the hot unit weren’t hot enough — at or over 135 degrees — nor were rotisserie chickens in the retail hot service unit. Stop sales on them, too.
The milk being used for coffee? Measured 46 degrees. Stop sale. That’s because the reach-in refrigerator had an ambient temperature of 56 degrees, which got that hit with a Stop Use Order.
And the meat department didn’t have a handwash sink.
“The food establishment has 30 calendar days to make necessary changes so that a hand sink with hot and cold running water and proper drainage is available in or immediately adjacent to the walk-in cooler where the meat grinder is used,” the inspection said.
This story was originally published September 14, 2025 at 4:32 PM.
