TAMPA, FL. Back in April 2026, state agriculture inspectors walked into a Tampa Dutch Bros Coffee and found dairy products sitting out in the open at temperatures that food safety rules exist to prevent.
According to Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services records from the April 2, 2026 inspection of Dutch Bros Coffee, inspectors documented milk, chocolate milk, sweet cream, heavy creamer, and whipped cream left out on prep counters in the coffee preparation area. Internal temperatures measured between 49°F and 72°F. State rules require cold-held foods like dairy to stay at or below 41°F.
That temperature range is not a close call. Seventy-two degrees is room temperature.
What Inspectors Found
Milk, cream, and whipped cream measured up to 72°F, more than 30 degrees above the 41°F cold-hold limit required by Florida food safety rules.
The temperature violation was flagged as both a priority violation and a repeat. Priority violations are those the state considers most directly linked to the risk of foodborne illness. The repeat designation means inspectors had documented the same category of problem at this location in a prior inspection.
None of the four violations cited during the April inspection were corrected on site at the time the inspector recorded them. The inspection report notes that out-of-temperature products were relocated to a freezer to quick-chill before being placed in proper refrigeration or discarded, but the corrected-on-site count in the record stands at zero.
The three remaining violations all centered on the coffee prep area as well. Food employees were observed wearing wrist watches and decorative bracelets while handling food, which state rules prohibit because jewelry can harbor bacteria and is difficult to sanitize. Employees were also seen without hair restraints, a basic requirement for anyone handling food products. The fourth violation, flagged as a priority foundation item, noted that food employees had nail polish on and were not wearing gloves while preparing customer drinks. State rules require employees with nail polish to wear gloves as a barrier, precisely because polish can chip and flake into food.
What These Violations Mean
The temperature finding is the most serious of the four. Dairy products like milk, cream, and whipped cream are what food safety regulators call time and temperature control for safety foods, meaning they support rapid bacterial growth when held outside the safe range. Between 41°F and 135°F, bacteria like Salmonella, Listeria, and Staphylococcus aureus can multiply quickly. At 72°F, the upper end of what inspectors measured at Dutch Bros, dairy has entered a range where bacterial growth accelerates significantly.
For customers ordering a latte or a cold brew with cream, the concern is direct. The dairy going into those drinks was the dairy sitting on those counters.
The nail polish and no-gloves violation carries its own specific risk. Nail polish chips. When it does, fragments can fall into food or drink without a customer noticing. The glove requirement exists as a physical barrier, and at Dutch Bros, where employees are hand-preparing drinks for each customer, that barrier matters on every order.
The jewelry and hair restraint violations are lower in severity but point to a broader compliance culture in the prep area. When multiple personal hygiene requirements are missed at the same time, in the same space, it typically reflects a gap in employee training or supervision rather than a single oversight.
The Longer Record
Dutch Bros Coffee opened at this Tampa location and received its first FDACS inspection on May 7, 2025, a preoperational visit that found zero violations. The facility met all requirements before opening its doors to customers.
That clean opening record makes the April 2026 findings more notable, not less. Within roughly eleven months of passing a zero-violation preoperational inspection, the location had accumulated a priority violation, a repeat designation on that same priority violation, and three additional hygiene citations in a single visit.
The repeat flag is the most significant detail in the inspection history. For a violation to be marked repeat, inspectors must have documented the same type of problem at the location in a previous inspection. With only two inspections on record at this address, that means the cold-hold temperature failure appeared in the facility's history before April 2026, and it appeared again in April 2026.
Two inspections is a short record. But a repeat priority violation in that short a window is a specific fact, and it is the fact the record leaves behind.
What Remains Unresolved
The inspection report notes that products were moved to a freezer during the visit. What it does not show is a corrected-on-site count greater than zero, meaning the violations were not fully resolved to the inspector's satisfaction before the inspection closed.
Whether the dairy reached 41°F or below before being returned to service, or whether it was discarded, is not documented in the inspection record. The nail polish and glove compliance, the jewelry, the hair restraints, those violations also carry no corrected-on-site notation.
The April 2, 2026 inspection closed with four violations on the record, a repeat priority finding among them, and none marked corrected on site.