TAMPA, FL. Food from an unapproved or unknown source was on the premises at Pal Campo Restaurant on Anderson Road when state inspectors arrived on May 7, one of six high-severity violations documented that day at the Tampa eatery. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection turned up a list that would concern anyone who had eaten there recently. Beyond the sourcing violation, inspectors cited employees for not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, inadequate shellfish identification records, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and no person in charge present or performing duties. Two intermediate violations, covering improperly cleaned multi-use utensils and improper use of wiping cloths, rounded out the findings.
Six high-severity violations. The facility remained open.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish records violation is particularly pointed. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification, meaning there was no reliable documentation trail for oysters, clams, or mussels on hand. Those are foods frequently eaten raw or lightly cooked.
The illness reporting violation compounds the risk. If an employee working a food prep station was sick and did not report it, there was no mechanism in place to remove that person from contact with food. No person in charge was present to enforce that mechanism anyway.
The handwashing citation makes the picture worse. An employee who attempts to wash their hands but uses improper technique can still transfer pathogens directly onto food or surfaces. The attempt, in that case, provides no actual protection.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is the one that carries the longest shadow. When food enters a kitchen from an unapproved or unknown source, it has bypassed federal USDA and FDA inspection processes. If someone became sick after eating at Pal Campo that week, there would be no reliable chain of documentation to trace the ingredient back to its origin. That gap is not a paperwork problem. It is what makes foodborne illness outbreaks difficult or impossible to contain.
The shellfish traceability violation operates the same way. Shellfish are among the highest-risk foods in any restaurant kitchen, capable of carrying Vibrio, norovirus, and hepatitis A. State rules require restaurants to keep the original harvest tags on shellfish shipments precisely so that, in the event of an illness, investigators can identify the harvest location and date. Without those records, there is no recall path.
The illness reporting failure is what epidemiologists call a direct transmission route. Food workers are the single leading cause of multi-victim norovirus outbreaks in restaurant settings. The only line of defense is a system where employees report symptoms and managers remove them from food handling. On May 7, inspectors found neither the reporting system functioning nor a manager present to enforce it.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, cited as an intermediate violation, add a surface-level risk on top of the others. Bacterial biofilms can develop on inadequately cleaned equipment within 24 hours and are resistant to standard sanitizing once established.
The Longer Record
The May 7 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Pal Campo has been inspected 20 times and has accumulated 115 violations across its history. The pattern of high-severity findings predates this year by several inspection cycles.
In November 2023, inspectors documented 8 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate in a single visit, the highest single-inspection count in the available record. Three months later, in January 2024, there were 5 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate. By February 2025, the count had returned to 6 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate, a number that matches the May 7 inspection almost exactly.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on record.
Two inspections in that same history show zero violations: one in November 2023 and one on May 8, 2026, the day after the inspection that produced the six high-severity findings. The follow-up visit cleared the facility. But the pattern of clean inspections followed by high-severity returns has repeated across multiple years.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. On May 7, six high-severity violations were documented at Pal Campo, including food from an unknown source, no functioning illness reporting system, and no manager in charge of the kitchen.
The restaurant served customers that day.