TAMPA, FL. Back in March 2026, a state inspector walked into Jump Cup, a convenience store on the limited food service side of Tampa, and found precooked egg patties and sausage patties sitting in a deli cooler measuring between 43°F and 44°F, above the 41°F threshold required to keep them safe.
That was one of 11 violations documented during a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection on March 18, 2026. Two of those violations were priority-level findings, meaning they carried the highest direct risk to customers.
What Inspectors Found
The temperature problem traced back to a physical one. The inspector noted the deli cooler had been pushed against a wall, with a rag and other objects blocking its back vent. The person in charge moved the cooler, cleared the blockage, and adjusted the unit during the inspection. The out-of-temperature egg and sausage patties were relocated to the freezer to quick-chill to 41°F or below before being returned to refrigeration.
The handwashing sink in the food service area was blocked by a dish soap jug. No paper towels were available at that same sink. Both were corrected on site, but the inspector also noted that the sink sat immediately adjacent to a coffee urn and the sanitizing basin of a three-compartment sink, with the positioning exposing nearby utensils and equipment to splash.
The store also had no sanitizer test strips, which are used to verify that the sanitizing solution in the three-compartment sink is at the correct concentration. Test strips were obtained during the inspection. An uncovered floor drain under the three-compartment sink in the warewashing area was also documented, along with a food employee working without a hair restraint and an ice scoop with its handle resting directly in the ice bin near the espresso machine.
The 2026 food permit was not posted, though the inspector verified it was active.
What These Violations Mean
The temperature violation at the deli cooler is the kind of finding that matters most to anyone picking up a quick breakfast item. Precooked egg and sausage patties held at 43°F to 44°F instead of 41°F or below are sitting in a range where bacterial growth accelerates. The two-degree gap sounds small, but the cold-holding standard exists precisely because pathogens like Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus multiply faster as temperatures climb above 41°F. The patties at Jump Cup were moved to the freezer during the inspection, so customers who arrived after that correction were not exposed to the out-of-temperature product. But the root cause, a blocked cooler vent, was a maintenance failure that had been building before the inspector arrived.
The handwashing sink findings compound the concern. A sink blocked by a soap jug and stocked with no paper towels is a sink employees are unlikely to use correctly, or at all, between handling food. At a limited food service counter where employees prepare espresso drinks and handle deli items, that gap is a direct link between whatever is on an employee's hands and what ends up in a customer's cup or on their food.
The missing sanitizer test strips are a quieter but meaningful problem. Without them, there is no way for staff to confirm that the solution they are using to sanitize utensils and equipment is actually strong enough to kill pathogens. A sanitizing bath that looks clean and smells right can still be too dilute to do its job.
The Longer Record
Jump Cup has a short inspection history at this location. The only prior FDACS record on file is a preoperational inspection from July 18, 2025, which documented zero violations. That inspection cleared the store to open.
The March 2026 inspection was the first routine sanitation check on record, and it produced 11 violations, including two at the priority level. None of the 11 violations were marked as repeats, meaning the inspector did not find the same problems documented in a prior visit. Given that the only prior inspection was a preoperational review rather than a standard sanitation check, the repeat-violation question is largely moot for now.
What the record does show is a store that opened clean and, within roughly eight months of operation, accumulated a range of findings spanning equipment maintenance, food safety temperature control, hand hygiene infrastructure, and sanitation verification. Whether those findings reflect a brief lapse or a settling pattern will depend on what subsequent inspections show.
What Was Corrected, and What Was Not
The inspection result was listed as "Met Sanitation Inspection Requirements," meaning the store passed despite the violations. Seven of the 11 violations were corrected on site during the inspection itself, including the temperature issue, the blocked handwashing sink, the missing paper towels, and the absent sanitizer test strips.
The violations marked as not corrected on site included the uncovered floor drain, the splash-exposure risk at the handwashing sink, the missing hair restraint, and the absent food permit display. The floor drain remained uncovered when the inspector left.