NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL. A state inspector walked into Manzano's Beachside Deli on Flagler Avenue on July 13 and found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, no written employee health policy, workers not reporting illness symptoms, and improper handwashing, among other violations. The deli collected eight high-severity citations in a single visit. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The cooking temperature violation is among the most direct threats to anyone who ate at the deli that day. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food does not reach the required internal temperature, those pathogens reach the plate intact.
The illness-reporting failure compounds that risk. The deli had no written employee health policy and workers were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two violations together mean a sick employee had no formal obligation to stay out of the kitchen, and no documented process existed to keep one away from food.
The inspector also cited inadequate handwashing and improper handwashing technique as separate high-severity violations. Both were marked on the same visit, meaning employees were observed either skipping handwashing entirely or performing it incorrectly. Improper technique leaves pathogens on hands even when a washing attempt is made.
Food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated rounded out the high-severity list, along with no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items and no person in charge present or performing duties. The intermediate violation involved multi-use utensils not properly cleaned.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature citation is not a paperwork issue. Undercooking is a leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, and the specific danger at Manzano's on July 13 was that food served to customers may have carried live pathogens that proper cooking would have killed.
The combination of no employee health policy and workers not reporting illness symptoms creates a direct transmission route for Norovirus, which causes an estimated 20 million cases of illness in the United States annually. A sick food handler with no obligation to report symptoms and no policy requiring them to stay home can contaminate surfaces, utensils, and food throughout a shift.
The handwashing violations add a third layer. Inadequate handwashing is the single most significant factor in spreading foodborne illness from food workers to customers, according to food safety researchers. Citing both the frequency and the technique as separate violations at the same facility on the same day suggests the problem was systematic, not incidental.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties ties it together. CDC data shows establishments without active managerial control have three times more critical violations than those with it. On July 13, inspectors found the management failure and the downstream violations it enables in the same visit.
The Longer Record
The July 13 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Manzano's Beachside Deli has been inspected 40 times and has accumulated 292 total violations across its history.
A follow-up inspection two days later, on July 15, still found three high-severity violations and one intermediate. The deli did not clear its high-severity citations in the immediate callback.
The pattern runs deeper than this summer. In January 2025, inspectors cited the deli for nine high-severity violations in a single visit. In July 2025, a two-day inspection sequence produced five high-severity violations on the first day and two more on the second. December 2025 brought another round, with four high-severity violations on December 19 alone.
The deli has been emergency-closed twice before. In July 2021, state inspectors ordered it shut for rodent activity. It reopened the same day. In September 2021, it was closed again for roach activity and again reopened the same day. Both closures came within a ten-week span.
Open for Business
The violations documented on July 13 included food not cooked to safe temperatures, no illness reporting framework, workers not flagging symptoms, and handwashing failures on both frequency and technique. The inspector counted eight high-severity citations.
The deli was not emergency-closed.
A two-day follow-up on July 15 found three high-severity violations still present. Manzano's Beachside Deli at 311 Flagler Avenue remained open to the public through both inspections.
