TAMPA, FL. Milk, creamer and whipped cream were all measured at 44 degrees Fahrenheit inside a malfunctioning prep cooler at Power Up Tampa, a convenience store on the front service counter, when a state inspector arrived on September 3, 2026.
The temperature violation was not the only problem. Inspectors documented 12 violations in total, including a repeat citation for the absence of a certified food protection manager, a direct plumbing connection between the sewage system and food equipment, and no written allergen notifications for unpackaged foods sold in the store.
What Inspectors Found
The prep cooler at the front service area was not holding food at or below 41 degrees, the required threshold for time/temperature control for safety foods. The inspector recorded internal temperatures of 44 degrees for milk, 44 degrees for creamer, and 44 degrees for whipped cream. Staff lowered the cooler's temperature setting during the inspection and moved all three products to chill quickly.
Milk and creamer that had been opened two days before the inspection were also sitting in that same cooler without any date marking. State food safety rules require opened, ready-to-eat refrigerated products to be dated so staff can track how long they have been in use. Both were labeled before the inspector left.
A container of peanut butter powder on top of the prep cooler was not labeled with its common name. Separately, the store had no written notification posted to alert customers to the presence of major food allergens in any unpackaged foods sold there.
The ice scoop in the ice maker had its handle resting directly in the ice, a contamination risk. It was repositioned during the inspection.
The Plumbing Problem
One of the more significant structural findings involved the plumbing. The inspector noted that the three-compartment sink and the ice maker both had a direct connection to the sewage system with no air gap in place.
An air gap is a physical separation between a water supply line or drain and the point where wastewater enters the sewage system. Without it, a pressure change or backup in the sewer line can draw contaminated water back into food preparation equipment. The ice maker is directly involved in producing ice that goes into customer drinks.
That violation was not corrected on site.
What These Violations Mean
The cold temperature failure is the most direct public health concern for anyone who purchased dairy products from Power Up Tampa around the time of the inspection. Milk, creamer and whipped cream held at 44 degrees instead of 41 degrees are sitting in a temperature range where bacterial growth accelerates. Three degrees may sound minor, but the 41-degree threshold exists precisely because pathogens like Listeria can multiply in refrigerated environments when temperatures drift even slightly above that line.
The allergen labeling gap is a risk of a different kind. Customers with severe allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, wheat or other major allergens rely on posted notifications when buying unpackaged foods. Power Up Tampa had none. The peanut butter powder sitting unlabeled on the prep counter makes that gap more concrete: a customer with a peanut allergy had no way of knowing that ingredient was in use at the service counter.
The two violations tied to the person in charge and employee health policies point to a systemic gap rather than an isolated slip. The inspector found that the person in charge could not correctly answer questions about preventing foodborne illness, and that employees had not been informed in a verifiable way of their responsibility to report health symptoms to management. Foodborne illness outbreaks are frequently traced back to sick employees who continued working because no clear reporting policy was in place.
The absence of written procedures for responding to a vomiting or diarrheal event falls into the same category. These procedures exist to prevent fecal-oral transmission of pathogens like norovirus, which can survive on surfaces and spread rapidly in a retail food environment without immediate and specific cleanup protocols.
The Longer Record
The inspection data available for Power Up Tampa does not include a prior inspection count, which limits how far back this pattern can be traced. What the record does show is that at least one violation, the absence of a certified food protection manager, was flagged before September 3 and remained unresolved when inspectors returned.
A certified food protection manager is not a formality. It is the person responsible for knowing food safety rules and training staff to follow them. The two violations tied to employee health knowledge, and the person in charge's inability to correctly answer inspector questions about foodborne illness, are consistent with what happens in a store where no one holds that certification.
The September 3 inspection was recorded as having met sanitation inspection requirements overall, meaning the store was not ordered to close. But of the 12 violations documented, none were corrected on site except the three that staff addressed during the inspection itself: repositioning the ice scoop, date-marking the dairy products, and lowering the cooler temperature. The direct sewage connection to the ice maker and the three-compartment sink, the missing allergen notifications, the absent test kit for sanitizer concentration, and the slime buildup on the rubber mat in the sink basins were all left unresolved when the inspector walked out.
