TAMPA, FL. A state inspector walked into BT on South MacDill Avenue on June 10 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means no government inspector ever certified that food as safe before it reached customers' plates.

That single finding was one of six high-severity violations documented during the visit. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.

What Inspectors Found

1HIGHFood from unapproved or unknown sourceNo USDA/FDA oversight
2HIGHFood not cooked to required minimum temperaturePathogen survival risk
3HIGHInadequate shell stock identification/recordsNo shellfish traceability
4HIGHNo consumer advisory for raw/undercooked foodsVulnerable diners uninformed
5HIGHImproper hand and arm washing techniquePathogens remain on hands
6HIGHNo employee health policy or inadequate policySick workers can handle food

The June 10 inspection produced no intermediate violations and no basic violations. Every citation issued was high-severity.

Inspectors also cited the facility for inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning shellfish served at BT, whether oysters, clams, or mussels, could not be traced back to a certified harvester. That traceability requirement exists precisely so health officials can track down the source of a shellfish-related illness outbreak. Without those records, that trail goes cold.

The remaining violations compounded the picture. Food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature, meaning pathogens like Salmonella, which survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit in poultry, were not reliably killed before food left the kitchen. No consumer advisory was posted to warn customers that raw or undercooked items were on the menu.

Employees were also cited for improper hand and arm washing technique, and the facility had no written employee health policy, or an inadequate one, to keep sick workers out of food preparation.

What These Violations Mean

The food sourcing violation is one of the most consequential a restaurant can receive. When food bypasses USDA and FDA inspection channels, there is no government verification that it was processed, stored, or transported safely. If a customer becomes ill, investigators have no supply chain to trace. The illness becomes a dead end.

The shellfish records violation is a direct extension of that same problem. Shellfish are filter feeders, meaning they concentrate whatever pathogens exist in the water around them. Oysters and clams are frequently eaten raw or barely cooked. When a restaurant cannot produce the tag identifying where and when its shellfish were harvested, a sick customer has no way to know whether the problem was the restaurant, the harvester, or the water. Regulators have no way to know either.

Undercooking is the violation most likely to produce a confirmed foodborne illness case. Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter are all destroyed by heat, but only if food reaches the required internal temperature. A kitchen that is not hitting those temperatures is not finishing the job that cooking is supposed to do.

The absence of a consumer advisory matters most to the people who cannot afford to get sick: pregnant women, elderly diners, people with compromised immune systems. A posted advisory gives those customers the information they need to make a different choice. Without it, they have no way to know the risk they are taking.

The Longer Record

BT on South MacDill Ave: Recent Inspection History

June 10, 20266 high-severity violations. Food from unapproved source, undercooking, shellfish traceability failure, no consumer advisory, improper handwashing, no health policy.
March 31, 20262 high, 1 intermediate violations.
February 27, 20254 high, 1 intermediate violations.
November 19, 20244 high, 0 intermediate violations.
April 30, 20242 high, 0 intermediate violations.
December 20, 20233 high, 1 intermediate violations.
May 24, 20234 high, 0 intermediate violations.
December 6, 20224 high, 0 intermediate violations.

BT has 21 inspections on record and 113 total violations documented across that history. The facility has never been emergency-closed.

Every inspection in the available prior history produced high-severity violations. The February 2025 visit found four. The November 2024 visit found four. The May 2023 and December 2022 visits each found four. June 10's six high-severity citations represent the worst single-inspection result in the recent record.

This is not a facility that accumulated violations during one rough stretch. High-severity citations appear in every documented visit going back to at least December 2022, across different inspection dates and different seasons. The June 10 inspection did not reveal a new problem. It revealed the same pattern at a higher count.

Still Open

State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at BT on June 10, including food from an unapproved source, shellfish with no traceability records, food not cooked to minimum safe temperatures, no consumer advisory for raw items, improper handwashing, and no written employee health policy.

The facility was not closed.