CORAL SPRINGS, FL. A state inspector visiting Marthabrae Jamaican Restaurant on University Drive on October 5 found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, employees not reporting illness symptoms, no person in charge present and performing duties, and improper handwashing technique, all in a single visit. The restaurant logged six high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate at Marthabrae on or before October 5. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and the record shows food was not reaching the temperatures required to kill it.
Compounding that risk: employees were cited for not reporting illness symptoms to management. A sick food worker who continues handling food is the most direct transmission route for norovirus and similar pathogens, and the violation was documented on the same day food was confirmed undercooked.
The inspector also found that handwashing technique was improper. That citation does not mean employees skipped handwashing entirely. It means the technique used was insufficient to remove pathogens, a distinction that matters because it can leave contamination on hands even after a wash.
Shell stock identification records were also inadequate. Marthabrae serves Jamaican cuisine, and the citation indicates shellfish, oysters, clams or mussels, were on the premises without the required traceability documentation. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils had not been properly cleaned.
What These Violations Mean
Undercooking is one of the most documented causes of foodborne illness in the United States. At Marthabrae, the violation means food reached customers without the heat exposure necessary to kill bacteria already present in the raw product. Salmonella, the pathogen most commonly associated with undercooked poultry, can cause illness within six to 72 hours of exposure and is particularly dangerous for children, elderly diners, and anyone immunocompromised.
The illness-reporting violation sits alongside it as an outbreak multiplier. When a food worker does not report symptoms, such as vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice, to a person in charge, there is no mechanism to remove that worker from food handling before customers are exposed. The CDC identifies ill food workers as the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks in restaurant settings.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties is not a paperwork violation. CDC data shows establishments without active managerial control log three times as many critical violations as those with engaged management present. At Marthabrae on October 5, no one was exercising that control while food was being cooked and served.
Inadequate shell stock records mean that if a customer becomes ill after eating shellfish at Marthabrae, investigators cannot trace the product back to its harvest location or lot. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from their growing waters. The recordkeeping requirement exists precisely because traceability is the only tool available once an outbreak is suspected.
The Longer Record
October 5 was not an anomaly. State records show Marthabrae Jamaican Restaurant has been inspected 30 times and has accumulated 229 total violations across its history.
The most recent prior inspection, on March 3, 2026, produced five high-severity violations and four intermediate violations. The inspection before that, on February 3, 2025, produced four high-severity violations and one intermediate. The pattern of multiple high-severity citations per visit has repeated across inspections in 2024, 2025, and now 2026.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, on June 29, 2023, for roach activity. It passed a follow-up inspection the next day and reopened. The two inspections immediately following that closure, in June and August 2023, both came back clean, with zero high-severity or intermediate violations. That stretch did not hold. By February 2024, high-severity violations had returned, and they have appeared in every inspection since.
The October 5 visit produced the highest single-inspection high-severity count in the recent record, six, surpassing the five logged in March 2026. Across eight documented inspections since mid-2023, only two produced no high-severity violations.
Open for Business
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Roach activity triggered that order at Marthabrae in June 2023. Six high-severity violations on October 5, 2026, including undercooked food, an employee not reporting illness, and no manager on duty, did not.
The restaurant remained open after the October 5 inspection.
