JACKSONVILLE, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into Mama's Pizza and Grill on Baymeadows Road and found food that had not been cooked to the required minimum temperature, one of the most direct routes from a restaurant kitchen to a hospital room.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented at the Jacksonville location on April 6. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation was not the only serious finding. The inspector also cited the restaurant for having no employee health policy and for employees failing to report symptoms of illness, two separate violations that address the same underlying danger: a sick worker preparing food with no system in place to stop them.
Inspectors further documented improper hand and arm washing technique. That is distinct from not washing hands at all. It means workers made an attempt to wash but did so incorrectly, leaving pathogens on their hands before returning to food preparation.
The inspection also turned up inadequate shell stock identification records. Mama's Pizza and Grill serves food that apparently involves shellfish, and the records that would allow health officials to trace an illness back to a specific harvest lot were not in order. There was also no consumer advisory posted to warn customers that certain menu items are served raw or undercooked.
Rounding out the list: no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties, and ventilation and lighting were cited as inadequate.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooked food violation is the one that most directly puts a customer in danger in real time. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A customer who ate improperly cooked chicken at Mama's on April 6 had no way of knowing the food had not reached a safe internal temperature.
The illness reporting failures compound that risk in a different direction. Without a written health policy and without employees required to report symptoms, a worker sick with Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States annually, can spend an entire shift handling food. The inspector found both conditions present at the same time.
The improper handwashing citation matters because it closes off what should be a secondary line of defense. Even if a worker is not visibly ill, proper handwashing removes pathogens picked up from surfaces, raw proteins, and other contamination sources. The technique failure means that line of defense was not functioning.
The shellfish traceability violation is less visible to a customer but matters acutely if someone gets sick. Oysters, clams, and mussels are high-risk foods, often consumed raw. Without proper shell stock records, investigators responding to a foodborne illness complaint cannot identify which harvest lot was involved or pull product from other locations.
The Longer Record
The April 6 inspection was not an isolated bad day. State records show Mama's Pizza and Grill has been inspected 27 times and has accumulated 211 violations across its history at the Baymeadows Road address.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent and recent. In September 2025, seven months before this inspection, the restaurant logged four high-severity and two intermediate violations. In April 2025, just two days before a clean inspection on April 4, it had five high-severity and three intermediate violations. In February 2024, it had five high-severity violations. In March 2023, another five high-severity violations.
The April 4, 2025 inspection with zero high or intermediate violations is notable precisely because it sits between two inspections with significant findings. The September 2025 visit and the April 2026 visit both produced serious violation counts.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. That means every time inspectors have documented high-severity violations at this address, including findings involving food temperature, illness policies, and employee hygiene, the restaurant has remained in operation.
Open for Business
Seven high-severity violations in a single inspection is not a common outcome. The majority of Florida restaurant inspections in any given week produce no high-severity findings at all.
At Mama's Pizza and Grill on April 6, 2026, inspectors documented food cooked to unsafe temperatures, no system for keeping sick employees out of the kitchen, improper handwashing, missing shellfish traceability records, and no manager on duty overseeing any of it.
The restaurant was not closed.