CLEARWATER, FL. State inspectors walked into Carambola at 400 Mandalay Ave on August 13 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning no USDA or FDA inspection trail existed for what the restaurant was serving to customers that day.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented during the visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food sourcing violation was joined by toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, and handwashing facilities that inspectors deemed inadequate. Those four violations together describe a kitchen where the raw ingredients, the surfaces they touched, the tools used to clean those surfaces, and the ability of employees to wash their hands were all flagged as compromised in a single visit.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for having no employee health policy, or one so inadequate it failed to meet state standards. The sixth high-severity violation: no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties at the time of the inspection.
Two intermediate violations rounded out the report. Inspectors documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal and improper use of wiping cloths.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved or unknown sources is not a paperwork problem. When a supplier bypasses USDA or FDA inspection, there is no traceability if a customer gets sick. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli outbreaks have been traced specifically to uninspected supply chains because no one can identify the source quickly enough to stop additional exposure.
The absence of adequate handwashing facilities makes the employee health policy violation worse, not separate from it. Without a written policy, a worker with Norovirus has no documented obligation to stay home. Without functioning handwashing infrastructure, even a worker who wants to wash their hands cannot do so properly. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million infections in the United States each year, and food service workers are among its most efficient vectors.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils where raw and ready-to-eat foods both travel, are a direct bacterial transfer route. The toxic chemicals violation adds a different category of risk: improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food areas can contaminate food through proximity, spillage, or mislabeling that leads a worker to use a cleaning agent where a food-safe product belongs.
The sewage violation is not minor. Improper wastewater disposal creates conditions for fecal contamination to spread through a facility. Raw sewage carries pathogens including Hepatitis A and norovirus. When that violation sits alongside absent handwashing infrastructure and no health policy, the contamination pathways compound.
The Longer Record
August 13 was not an unusual day at Carambola. It was the eighth inspection in roughly three and a half years to produce high-severity violations, and the record going back to early 2023 shows no sustained period of correction.
The most recent inspection before August produced four high-severity violations in February 2026. The one before that, in August 2025, also produced four high-severity violations. February 2025 produced six high-severity violations and one intermediate, a profile nearly identical to the August 2026 report. The pattern holds across 25 inspections on record and 165 total violations accumulated over the facility's history.
The only clean inspection in recent memory was July 19, 2023, which recorded zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. It came one day after a July 18 inspection that produced four high-severity violations. That single clean report stands alone in a record otherwise defined by recurring critical findings.
Carambola has never been emergency-closed. No inspection in its 25-visit history has resulted in a state order to shut the doors.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Carambola on August 13, 2026, including food from an unverifiable supply chain, toxic chemicals stored near food, surfaces that had not been properly sanitized, and no functioning handwashing setup. The restaurant continued operating.
The inspection record shows this is the third time in four visits that six high-severity violations appeared in a single report. Each time, the restaurant remained open.
