TAMPA, FL. Back in December 2025, a state inspector walked into the meat department at Jerusalem International Market and found raw chicken sitting on a shelf directly above beef bologna in the walk-in cooler, old protein caked inside the top and bottom bandsaw cabinets, and no soap or paper towels at the handwashing sink.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection, conducted December 30, documented 15 total violations, including three priority violations and one repeat citation. None were corrected on site at the time of inspection in the sense that the facility met requirements overall, but the record shows a department operating with significant gaps in basic food safety practice.
What Inspectors Found in the Meat Department
The cross-contamination finding was the most acute. The inspector noted raw chicken stored on a shelf above beef bologna in the walk-in cooler. Raw chicken must always occupy the lowest position in any cooler stack because its juices, which can carry Salmonella and Campylobacter, drip downward. The bologna below was a ready-to-eat product, meaning it would reach a customer's hands or mouth without any cooking step to kill bacteria introduced from above. The chicken was relocated to the bottom shelf during the inspection.
The equipment findings were extensive. The inspector documented "old protein build-up interior of top and bottom bandsaw cabinets (around blade area, behind wheel, etc.)," old protein build-up inside the meat grinder cavity, and old food build-up on the deli slicer meat grip. All three pieces of equipment were cleaned and sanitized before the inspector left, but the description of "old" buildup indicates the contamination was not fresh.
Temperature was also a concern. Beef knock wurst measured 46 degrees Fahrenheit at the edge of an open air cooler in the retail area. The legal ceiling for cold-held time and temperature control foods is 41 degrees. Foods near the edge were moved to chill quickly; products stored in the middle and back of the same cooler were already at or below 41 degrees.
Roast beef, turkey, and various mortadella that had been opened three days earlier in the display cooler carried no date markings. Date marking exists specifically to track how long a ready-to-eat product has been open and vulnerable to bacterial growth. All items were labeled before the inspector departed.
Two spray bottles in the meat department, one containing glass cleaner and one containing an unidentified chemical, carried no labels. The glass cleaner was labeled during the inspection. The unknown chemical was emptied out.
The Repeat Violation
One citation on the December 30 report was marked as a repeat: the establishment does not have a certified food protection manager who has passed a recognized examination. The inspector noted that proof of certification was not available.
That designation means state records show inspectors flagged the same deficiency on a prior visit. A certified food protection manager is not a paperwork formality. It is the designated person responsible for knowing and enforcing food safety practices across the operation, the individual who is supposed to ensure that meat is stored in the right order, that equipment is cleaned on schedule, and that employees understand their obligations when they are sick.
What These Violations Mean
The raw animal food separation violation is the most direct public health risk in this inspection. Beef bologna and similar deli products are sold ready to eat, meaning no heat will kill any pathogen introduced during storage. Raw poultry stored above those products creates a direct contamination pathway that a customer has no way to detect or correct.
The equipment findings matter for a different reason. Protein residue inside a bandsaw cabinet or a meat grinder is organic material that supports bacterial growth between uses. A customer buying ground meat or sliced product from a department where the equipment carried "old" buildup is buying something processed on a surface that was not clean. The corrections made on site addressed the immediate state of the equipment, but they do not explain how the buildup accumulated in the first place.
The absence of soap and paper towels at the meat department handwashing sink is a compounding factor. Employees handling raw poultry, operating a bandsaw, and then preparing ready-to-eat products cannot break that contamination chain if the handwashing sink is not functional. The sink was restocked during the inspection.
The person in charge could not correctly answer questions related to preventing foodborne illness, and employees had not been informed in a verifiable way of their responsibility to report health conditions that could spread disease. Those are not administrative oversights. They describe a department where the supervisory layer designed to catch exactly the violations documented on December 30 was not in place.
The Longer Record
The repeat citation for the absent certified food protection manager indicates this is not the first time state inspectors have noted that gap at Jerusalem International Market. A prior inspection flagged the same deficiency, and the December 30 visit found it unresolved.
The facility met sanitation inspection requirements overall on December 30, meaning the state did not order a closure or stop-sale action. But the combination of a repeat violation in the management category, priority violations in raw meat storage and temperature, and priority-foundation violations covering equipment sanitation, date marking, and chemical labeling paints a picture of a meat department where multiple foundational practices were not consistently maintained.
The sanitizer test kit was also absent from the meat department as of December 30. Without it, staff have no way to verify that the sanitizer concentration used on the bandsaw, grinder, and slicer is actually effective, a fact that sits alongside the old protein buildup documented on the same equipment.