Travelers heading to Gate D-44 at Miami International Airport found one less pizza option this week after state inspectors shut down Villa Pizza over rodent droppings, mold, roaches and cheese and toppings sitting well above safe temperatures. The closure marks the second airport pizzeria cited for similar violations in the same week, following the shutdown of a Famous Famiglia location in MIA’s South Terminal just a day earlier.
An inspector with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation visited Villa Pizza, located across from Gate D-44, after the agency received a customer complaint on Aug. 6, according to Miami Herald reporter David J. Neal. The inspector confirmed the complaint allegation and ultimately tallied 22 total violations, six of them high-priority, the newspaper reported. Stop-sale orders sent the affected foods to the garbage, and the location was shut down until it passed a re-inspection Wednesday morning.
What Inspectors Found Behind the Counter
The violations painted a grim picture of the kitchen and service area. The inspector found one rodent dropping near the flour container, another behind a reach-in cooler by the front counter, and three more on a shelf above the three-compartment sink, per the Herald’s account. The lobby held two roach corpses, while an inspector saw three live roaches running on the floor and under the front counter’s pizza display.
Flies were also a problem: the inspector counted four total, three of them clustered by the ice machine, which itself had a black and green mold-like substance built up inside. Soda nozzles were soiled, the floor beneath the oven and other kitchen equipment was dirty, and ceiling vents throughout the establishment showed buildup as well. A cutting board in the prep cooler had cut marks so deep it was no longer cleanable, and the restaurant was also cited for using wood other than hard, close-grained wood as a food-contact surface — a violation for the chicken wing cart, which inspectors found heavily soiled, and for the wood service area holding pizzas at the front counter.
Cheese, Olives and Pepperoni Sitting at Room Temperature
Florida law requires potentially hazardous cold foods to be kept at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and food held in a prep cooler for more than five hours must be cooled back down to that threshold, according to Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation rules. At Villa Pizza, shredded mozzarella, diced olives, mixed vegetables, mixed tomatoes, diced pepperoni and diced pineapple were all measured between 51 and 59 degrees in the prep cooler, well outside that safe range, the Herald reported. Multiple food-contact surfaces throughout the kitchen were also soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime…