CLEARWATER, FL. State inspectors walked into Sacred Spice Tampa Bay on Ulmerton Road on August 11, 2026, and documented food coming from unapproved or unknown sources, a violation that means whatever was served that day had bypassed every federal safety checkpoint designed to catch Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before it reaches a plate.
That was one of ten high-severity violations cited that afternoon. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is among the most direct threats on the list. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a single undercooked serving is enough to cause serious illness. Inspectors also cited toxic substances as improperly identified, stored, or used, a violation that creates immediate risk of chemical contamination in food or on surfaces that touch food.
The allergen violation adds a separate layer of danger. Inspectors found no demonstrated allergen awareness among staff. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans and send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A kitchen that cannot identify allergens in its own dishes cannot warn the customers who need that information most.
The shell stock citation compounds the sourcing problem. Without proper shellfish identification tags and records, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest bed if a customer gets sick. That traceability is the entire mechanism that allows health officials to contain a shellfish-related outbreak.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved food sources and no employee health policy creates overlapping exposure for anyone who ate at Sacred Spice Tampa Bay on or around August 11. Food from outside the regulated supply chain carries no guarantee of USDA or FDA inspection. At the same time, without a written employee health policy, there is no formal mechanism to keep a sick worker off the line. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States annually, spreads through exactly that gap.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and improperly used wiping cloths compound every other violation on the list. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that are not properly sanitized become transfer points for whatever pathogens are already present. Wiping cloths that are not stored in sanitizing solution between uses can spread contamination from one surface to the next across an entire kitchen.
Inadequate cold-holding equipment means food may be sitting in the temperature range, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, where bacteria multiply fastest. That violation does not stand alone here. It sits alongside an undercooking citation and food from unverified sources, a combination that gives harmful bacteria multiple opportunities to survive and reach a customer.
The Longer Record
The August 11 inspection did not happen in isolation. Sacred Spice Tampa Bay has 102 inspections on record and 1,809 total violations documented across that history.
The facility has been emergency-closed 14 times. In February 2026, inspectors shut it down for sewage backup. It reopened the next day. In May 2024, it was closed for roach and fly activity, then closed again for the same reason in March 2024, reopening the same day both times. The most recent inspection before August 11 of this year, conducted on February 17, 2026, produced 9 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations and triggered that sewage-related closure.
The pattern across recent inspections is consistent. The February 5, 2025, visit produced 8 high-severity violations. The August 14, 2025, visit produced 5. The February 17, 2026, visit produced 9. The August 11, 2026, visit produced 10. Between those spikes, a clean inspection on March 4, 2025, showed zero violations, which means the facility is capable of passing. It also means the high-violation inspections represent choices, not circumstances.
Ten days after the August 11 inspection, inspectors returned. That visit, on August 21, 2026, found 3 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. The number dropped. The high-severity category did not disappear.
The Longer Record in Numbers
Sacred Spice Tampa Bay: Recent Inspection Pattern
Sacred Spice Tampa Bay left August 11, 2026, with ten high-severity violations on the books, including food from sources that bypassed federal inspection, undercooking, improperly stored toxic substances, and no demonstrated allergen awareness among staff.
The doors stayed open.
