TAMPA, FL. Back in February 2026, the person in charge at Joffreys Coffee and Tea Company could not correctly answer basic questions about preventing foodborne illness when a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspector asked them, according to state records.
That finding was among 11 violations documented during a February 19 sanitation inspection at the Tampa specialty coffee retailer. Four of those violations were classified as priority foundation issues, meaning they relate to the knowledge and practices that underpin safe food handling. The facility met inspection requirements and was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The most operationally significant finding involved the customer self-service condiment bar. Half and half, skim milk, and whole milk carafes were being held out for customers without any discard time marked or any notation of when they had been removed from temperature control. An inspector corrected that on the spot, properly time-marking the carafes and walking the person in charge through the four-hour time-marking procedure.
The unlabeled chemical bottle was also addressed during the visit. A spray bottle of blue glass cleaner in the food service area carried no label identifying its contents. The inspector had it labeled before leaving.
Coffee filters were found stored in a cabinet directly beneath the plumbing from a dump sink, a placement that exposes single-use items to potential contamination from drain lines above. Those were relocated during the inspection.
The cleanliness findings were not corrected on site. Old spills were documented inside and on cabinets and drawers throughout the food service area. Coffee grounds and crumbs had accumulated on floors under and behind equipment in the back room. The mop sink basin was soiled, and the floor drain under the three-compartment sink in the warewashing area was soiled as well.
Food employees were observed working without hair restraints. Separate from that, employees with nail polish were handling exposed foods without wearing gloves, a priority foundation violation because nail polish can chip and flake directly into product.
No handwashing sign was posted at the handwashing sink in the food service area. The inspector provided an industry handwash sign. Soap and paper towels were found stocked at the dump sink rather than the designated handwashing sink.
What These Violations Mean
The most serious category of finding at Joffreys in February was the person in charge's inability to answer questions about foodborne illness prevention. In a retail food environment, the person in charge is the first line of defense when something goes wrong. If that person cannot correctly explain how illnesses spread or what protocols apply, the entire operation's response to a contamination event becomes unreliable. The inspector reviewed the employee health policy with the person in charge before leaving.
The dairy carafes at the self-service bar represent a direct public health concern. Milk and cream are time-temperature control foods, meaning bacteria multiply rapidly in them once they leave refrigeration. State rules allow these products to be held without refrigeration for up to four hours, but only if the start time is marked so staff know when to pull them. Without that marking, there is no way to know how long the product has been sitting out, and customers are serving themselves from carafes with no expiration clock running.
Nail polish on food handlers without gloves is not a cosmetic concern. Polish chips, and chips end up in product. That is why the violation is classified at the priority foundation level, one tier below the most urgent priority violations.
An unlabeled chemical bottle in a food preparation area is a contamination and poisoning risk. Blue glass cleaner stored in a spray bottle that looks like any other spray bottle, without a label, creates the conditions for accidental application to food surfaces or equipment.
The Longer Record
The February 2026 inspection was the third FDACS inspection on record at this location. The first, a focused inspection in August 2023, found zero violations. The second, a full inspection in November 2022, found eight violations.
The jump from eight violations in 2022 to eleven in February 2026 is worth noting. None of the February violations were marked as repeats, meaning the specific citations did not match prior findings exactly. But the categories, cleanliness of non-food-contact surfaces, physical facilities not cleaned as necessary, and basic food safety knowledge gaps, are the kinds of conditions that accumulate when routine maintenance and training slip between inspection cycles.
The facility has a relatively short inspection history at this address, with only three inspections spanning roughly three and a half years. That limited record makes it harder to identify a long-term pattern, but the trajectory from zero violations to eight to eleven is not a direction that suggests improvement.
None of the four priority foundation violations from February were marked as corrected on site in the inspection record, with the exception of the dairy carafes and the unlabeled chemical bottle. The cleanliness violations, the soiled mop sink, the soiled floor drain, the accumulated coffee grounds and crumbs on back-room floors, and the old spills on cabinets and drawers throughout the food service area, remained unresolved at the time the inspector left.