EVERGLADES CITY, FL. Back in January 2026, a state inspector walking through City Seafood, a seafood market on the edge of the Everglades, found raw hamburger patties stored directly above ready-to-eat items inside a reach-in prep cooler. The violation was corrected on the spot, but it was one of 21 total violations documented during the January 20 inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The market met sanitation requirements by the end of the visit, but the inspection record shows a facility with gaps in basic food safety infrastructure that went well beyond a single storage mistake.
What Inspectors Found
The cross-contamination finding was the inspection's single priority violation, meaning it carried the highest potential for causing illness. Raw hamburger patties stored above ready-to-eat items can allow raw meat juices to drip onto food that will not be cooked again before a customer eats it.
Several "priority foundation" violations, one step below priority on the severity scale, pointed to missing tools and missing knowledge. The establishment had no probe thermometer for checking internal food temperatures. The person in charge at the time of the inspection could not answer questions about foodborne illness prevention. There were no written procedures for cleaning up a vomit or diarrhea event, and the inspector noted the person in charge could not produce them.
The hand sink at the seafood display case had a bucket sitting in the basin, blocking employee access. That was corrected during the inspection. Chlorine sanitizer test strips were not available at the start of the inspection but were provided before the inspector left.
The inspector also found a threaded faucet on an outside wall with no backflow prevention device attached, a plumbing issue that can allow contaminated water to flow back into a clean water supply.
Beyond the priority-level findings, the inspection documented a long list of core violations. Assorted foods were stored uncovered in the walk-in freezer. Multiple squeeze bottles and ingredient containers at the prep station were not labeled. A container of cooking oil sat on the floor next to a reach-in cooler rather than at least six inches above it. The gasket on the reach-in prep cooler was damaged, with rust visible on the bottom and sides. The ambient air thermometer was missing from the seafood prep cooler station entirely.
The building itself showed signs of deferred maintenance. Ceiling lights in the kitchen were not shielded or shatter-resistant, a requirement in food prep areas. Soil and grease had built up on the wall behind the fryers and on the floor underneath them. The outside of the ice machine had visible soil accumulation. Men's and women's restroom doors were not fully self-closing. A gap between a window and an air conditioning unit at the front of the building left an opening for insects and rodents. Broken and idle kitchen equipment was stored at the entrance to the walk-in cooler and freezer.
The market did not have a certified food protection manager on staff.
What These Violations Mean
The cross-contamination violation, raw hamburger above ready-to-eat food, is one of the most direct pathways to foodborne illness in any food retail setting. Pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella present in raw ground beef can transfer to foods that customers will eat without further cooking. At a seafood market where customers may be purchasing items like prepared fish or shellfish for immediate consumption, that risk is not abstract.
The absence of a probe thermometer matters in a different but equally concrete way. Without one, staff have no reliable method to verify that cooked seafood has reached a safe internal temperature, or that items pulled from cold storage are still within a safe range. A missing thermometer is not a paperwork problem. It means temperature checks were not happening.
The person in charge's inability to answer basic foodborne illness questions during the inspection, and the absence of written cleanup procedures for vomit and diarrhea events, point to a gap in staff training. Those procedures exist to contain contamination quickly if a customer or employee becomes ill on the premises. Without them, the risk of a localized incident spreading to food contact surfaces or product is higher.
The backflow prevention violation on the outdoor faucet is a plumbing issue that can introduce contaminants into the water supply used for food prep and handwashing. It is not a cosmetic problem.
The Longer Record
The FDACS inspection database shows one inspection on record for City Seafood at the time of this January 2026 visit. That means there is no multi-year pattern to compare against, and none of the 21 violations documented in January were marked as repeats from a prior inspection.
The absence of repeat flags is notable, but it does not mean the violations were minor. The inspection uncovered gaps that suggest systemic issues rather than isolated lapses: no probe thermometer, no certified food protection manager, no written emergency procedures, a damaged cooler with rust buildup, and an unlabeled prep station. These are not findings that appear overnight.
None of the violations corrected on site during the January 20 inspection addressed the structural gaps, including the missing probe thermometer, the lack of a certified food protection manager, or the backflow prevention issue on the outdoor faucet. Those remained unresolved at the time the inspector left.