CLEARWATER, FL. Inspectors visiting Delhi Palace at 25000 US Hwy 19 N on September 28 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers inside the Clearwater restaurant, a violation that means some of what customers ate that week bypassed every federal safety inspection designed to catch Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens before they reach a plate.
The restaurant was not closed.
That single finding sat alongside five other high-severity violations and one intermediate citation documented during the same visit, a total of seven violations in a week when inspectors had already cited the restaurant four days earlier.
What Inspectors Found
The food-sourcing violation is the kind that investigators treat as a baseline threat. When a restaurant cannot document where its meat, produce, or dairy came from, there is no chain of custody to trace if a customer gets sick. No lot number, no supplier record, no recall notice that would reach that kitchen.
Inspectors also cited food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. That finding compounds the sourcing problem: not only was some food of unknown origin, some of what was on hand was documented as unfit.
The restaurant had no written employee health policy, meaning there was no formal system to keep sick workers out of the kitchen. Inspectors also documented improper handwashing technique, a separate and specific failure. Washing hands incorrectly leaves pathogens on the skin even when a worker goes through the motions, and those pathogens transfer directly to food during preparation.
Delhi Palace also failed to properly use time as a public health control. When temperature-controlled storage is not used, time becomes the substitute safety mechanism, with strict limits on how long food can sit in the bacterial growth range between 41 and 135 degrees. The records show those limits were not being followed.
Customers who ordered anything that could be served raw or undercooked had no advisory warning them of the risk. That matters most for pregnant women, elderly diners, and anyone with a compromised immune system, none of whom received any notice on September 28.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork violation. The USDA and FDA inspection system exists specifically to intercept contaminated product before it reaches consumers. A restaurant that bypasses that system has no way to know whether its ingredients carry Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli, and no way to participate in a recall if a supplier's product is later flagged. If a customer gets sick, investigators have nowhere to start.
The combination of no employee health policy and improper handwashing technique creates a direct transmission route for Norovirus, which is responsible for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year. A sick employee with no policy barring them from work, washing their hands incorrectly, and handling food is one of the most reliable vectors in foodborne illness outbreaks.
Time abuse, the failure to properly track how long food spends in the temperature danger zone, is how bacterial counts climb to dangerous levels without any visible sign of spoilage. Food can look and smell normal while carrying a pathogen load large enough to cause serious illness. When a restaurant is also receiving food from unknown sources and has food in poor condition on hand, the compounding effect raises the risk further.
The single-use item reuse violation adds a cross-contamination layer. Items designed for one use, whether gloves, foil, or utensils, are not built to be cleaned effectively. Reusing them transfers whatever they contacted the first time to whatever they touch next.
The Longer Record
Delhi Palace: Recent Inspection History
Delhi Palace has been inspected 80 times and has accumulated 1,097 total violations on record. That is not a facility with an occasional bad day. That is a facility with a documented, multi-year pattern of serious safety failures.
Three of those inspections ended in emergency closure orders. Inspectors shut the restaurant down in July 2024 for rodent activity, in August 2024 for rodent, roach, and fly activity combined, and again in November 2024 for roach activity. All three closures came within a five-month stretch.
The inspections in November 2024, the days immediately following that third closure, still produced three high-severity violations each. The May 2026 inspection produced ten high-severity violations in a single visit. Four days before the September 28 inspection, inspectors had already cited the restaurant for seven high-severity violations.
September 28 was not a new low for Delhi Palace. It was consistent with what state records have shown for years.
The restaurant remained open.
