RIVERVIEW, FL. Back in March 2026, a state inspector walked into Cali Cafe on a routine sanitation check and found sliced ham in the sandwich prep cooler stamped with an open date of March 16, two days past the seven-day discard limit required by food safety code.
The food manager voluntarily discarded the ham in front of the inspector. But the ham was not the only problem.
What Inspectors Found
Raw shell eggs were stored directly above ready-to-eat foods in the walk-in cooler. That was corrected during the inspection, with the eggs moved to the bottom shelf. But the temperature findings were more extensive.
Raw shell eggs left at ambient temperature in the kitchen measured 60°F. Sliced ham in the sandwich prep cooler measured 46°F, and cheese in the same unit measured 50°F. State code requires cold-held temperature-controlled foods to stay at or below 41°F. The ham and cheese were quick-chilled in the freezer before being returned to refrigeration, and the cooler's temperature setting was lowered to account for frequent opening during meal service.
The floor mixer in the food processing area had old food buildup at the dough mixing utensil connection, directly above the mixing bowl. Scoops in flour and ice bins had their handles resting in the food itself, a practice corrected during the visit by adjusting the handles above the food line.
Utensils and equipment used continuously for temperature-controlled foods had not been cleaned and sanitized within the required four-hour window. The inspector demonstrated sanitizer preparation and testing for employees, and dishes were cleaned, sanitized, and air-dried during the inspection.
The Missing Paperwork
Four of the ten violations involved written procedures that did not exist at the time of inspection. None of these were corrected on site in any permanent sense, though templates and guidance were provided.
The cafe had no written policy for using time as a public health control, even though products were being held with time-based discard markings. A template was emailed to the owner. There were no written procedures for employees to follow in the event of a vomiting or diarrheal incident on the premises, a requirement that inspectors reviewed with the person in charge.
Employees had not been informed in a verifiable manner of their responsibility to report health conditions related to foodborne illness to the person in charge. An employee reporting agreement document was provided to management during the inspection.
There was no probe thermometer available anywhere on site for checking the temperature of temperature-controlled foods. One was obtained during the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The temperature findings at Cali Cafe are the kind that food safety officials flag as direct pathways to illness. Ham and cheese sitting at 46°F and 50°F, and raw eggs left at 60°F on a kitchen counter, are all well above the 41°F threshold designed to slow the growth of bacteria like Salmonella, Listeria, and Staphylococcus aureus. The longer food stays in that temperature range, the faster bacterial populations multiply.
The expired ham is a separate concern. A seven-day discard limit on sliced deli meat exists because even properly refrigerated cut meat accumulates bacterial load over time. Ham held for nine days since slicing, and still in active service two days past the limit, is exactly the scenario that rule is designed to prevent.
Raw shell eggs stored above ready-to-eat foods in the walk-in cooler creates a cross-contamination risk that is straightforward: a cracked egg, a drip, or condensation from an improperly sealed carton can deposit Salmonella directly onto food that will never be cooked again before it reaches a customer.
The absence of a probe thermometer is significant in context. Without one, staff at Cali Cafe had no reliable way to verify whether any temperature-controlled food was being held safely. The violations that were caught during this inspection, including the eggs at 60°F and the ham and cheese above 41°F, might have gone undetected on any given day without inspector intervention.
The Longer Record
The March 24, 2026 inspection was conducted under the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees specialty food shops and retail food establishments rather than the Division of Hotels and Restaurants. The inspection result was recorded as "Met Sanitation Inspection Requirements," meaning the facility passed despite the ten violations, three of them classified as priority.
None of the ten violations were marked as repeats from a prior inspection. That means this was not a documented pattern of the same failures appearing across multiple visits. It also means, however, that several of the procedural gaps, including the missing illness reporting agreements, the absent vomiting and diarrheal event procedures, and the lack of a written time-as-public-health-control policy, had not been caught and corrected before this visit.
Zero violations were corrected on site in a documented, permanent way. Several were addressed in the moment, food moved, equipment cleaned, a thermometer obtained. The paperwork deficiencies remained unresolved at the close of the inspection, with templates emailed and guidance reviewed but no verified written procedures in place.