TAMPA, FL. A food worker at Foodys Restaurant on W Hillsborough Avenue was observed not reporting symptoms of illness to management during a state inspection on August 6, 2026, one of six high-severity violations inspectors cited at the Tampa restaurant that day. The facility was not closed.
The six violations inspectors documented carry some of the most serious public health consequences in Florida's food safety code. Every one of them was high-severity. Not one was intermediate or basic.
What Inspectors Found
Inspectors found that Foodys had no written employee health policy, or an inadequate one, and that at least one employee had failed to report illness symptoms. Those two violations exist in tandem: without a written policy, workers have no formal obligation to report, and without reporting, a sick employee can work an entire shift in contact with food.
The handwashing violation compounded the illness risk. Inspectors cited improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even when employees made an attempt to wash their hands, the technique left pathogens behind.
Inspectors also cited inadequate shell stock identification and records. Foodys serves shellfish, and state code requires that every batch of oysters, clams, or mussels arrive with tags identifying the harvest location, harvest date, and dealer. Those records also cited improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, a direct pathway for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat foods. And the restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items, leaving customers with no notice that certain dishes carry elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no health policy and an employee not reporting illness is the documented starting point for most multi-victim foodborne outbreaks. Norovirus spreads person-to-person through food contact, and a single infected worker without restrictions can contaminate hundreds of portions during one shift. The illness reporting violation is not a paperwork failure. It is a direct transmission route.
Improper handwashing technique is a specific and underreported risk. Studies show that a rushed or incomplete wash, even with soap, leaves enough viral and bacterial load on hands to contaminate surfaces and food. At Foodys, inspectors found this technique failure on the same day they found improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, meaning contamination had multiple routes in and out of the kitchen.
The shellfish records violation matters most if someone gets sick. Without harvest tags and dealer records on file, health investigators cannot trace a contaminated batch to its source. If a customer contracts Vibrio or hepatitis A from raw shellfish at Foodys, the trail goes cold at the restaurant's door.
The missing consumer advisory affects the most vulnerable diners specifically. Elderly customers, pregnant women, young children, and anyone immunocompromised are at sharply elevated risk from raw or undercooked proteins. A posted advisory is the minimum notice the state requires. Foodys did not have one.
The Longer Record
The August 6 inspection was not an outlier. It was the eighth consecutive routine inspection in which Foodys accumulated five or more high-severity violations.
State records show 30 inspections on file for the W Hillsborough Avenue location, with 230 total violations documented across that history. The most recent eight inspections alone, dating to January 2023, produced between four and eight high-severity citations each time. The March 2026 inspection, five months before this one, found six high-severity and one intermediate violation. The August 2025 inspection found seven high-severity and three intermediate violations.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once, in May 2015, after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened the following day. In the eleven years since, inspectors have returned repeatedly and found serious violations at nearly every visit, but the facility has not been closed again.
The pattern across those eight most recent inspections includes recurring citations in illness policy, food handling, and food sourcing. These are not rotating categories of minor lapses. They are the same categories of risk, documented across multiple years, at the same address.
Open for Business
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Roach activity triggered that order in 2015. Six high-severity violations on August 6, 2026, including a sick employee failing to report illness and improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, did not.
Foodys Restaurant on W Hillsborough Avenue was open when inspectors arrived. It was open when they left.
