TAMPA, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Ajisai Sushi on East Fowler Avenue and found that the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning the ingredients on customers' plates had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely.
That was one of ten high-severity violations documented during the April 9 inspection. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The full list covered nearly every layer of food safety. Inspectors cited improper handwashing technique, food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and the improper use of time as a public health control, a procedure that allows food to sit in the temperature danger zone only if strict time limits are followed.
The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. At a sushi restaurant, where raw fish is a core menu item, that omission means customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, and elderly diners had no warning.
Inadequate shell stock identification records were also cited. Shellfish served raw or lightly cooked at the restaurant could not be traced to a certified source. No person in charge was present or performing duties during the visit.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is one of the most serious citations an inspector can write. When a restaurant sources ingredients outside the regulated supply chain, there is no record of where the food came from, no USDA or FDA inspection at the point of origin, and no way to trace an outbreak back to its source if a customer gets sick. At a sushi restaurant, that risk is acute, because much of the product is consumed raw.
The undercooking violation compounds that risk. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a restaurant that also failed to demonstrate proper time-as-a-public-health-control procedures, food may have been sitting in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, for an unknown period without adequate temperature monitoring as a backup.
The absence of an employee health policy is a direct transmission risk. Without a written policy requiring sick workers to stay home, an employee with Norovirus has no formal obligation to report symptoms or leave. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are a primary transmission route.
Toxic chemicals stored improperly near food represent a different category of harm entirely. Mislabeled or misplaced cleaning agents can contaminate food directly, and the resulting poisoning can be acute. That violation, combined with improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, means the risk at Ajisai on April 9 was not limited to any single failure.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Ajisai Sushi has been inspected 25 times, accumulating 254 total violations, and has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity citations runs consistently through recent years. In July 2025, inspectors found 9 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations. In March 2025, the count was 6 high and 2 intermediate. The December 2024 inspection produced 4 high-severity violations. In March 2024, inspectors documented 7 high-severity violations. The one clean inspection on record, in October 2023, produced zero high or intermediate violations, a single data point surrounded on both sides by years of elevated counts.
The April 2026 inspection, with 10 high-severity violations and zero intermediate, represents the highest single-inspection high-severity count in the facility's recent history. It surpassed the July 2025 inspection, which had previously been the worst on record in recent years.
The Facility Remained Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Ten high-severity violations at a raw-fish restaurant, including food from an unapproved source, undercooking, no shell stock traceability, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and no manager on duty, did not meet that threshold on April 9.
Ajisai Sushi on East Fowler Avenue was open for business when the inspection ended.