TAMPA, FL. Food at Sal y Mar on Midtown Drive was not being cooked to the required minimum temperature when state inspectors walked in on September 4, a violation that means pathogens like Salmonella can survive in the food and reach the customer's plate.
That was one of six high-severity violations inspectors documented that day. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The six high-severity findings covered nearly every layer of food safety that inspectors are trained to check. No qualified person in charge was present or performing duties. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, and employees were not reporting illness symptoms.
The handwashing picture was worse still. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning the infrastructure for proper hygiene was deficient and the technique being used was wrong regardless.
Two intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, and toilet facilities that were inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooked food violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate at Sal y Mar that day. Salmonella in poultry does not die below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food does not reach required minimum temperatures, the pathogen survives the cooking process and goes directly to the customer. There is no secondary safeguard once the food leaves the kitchen.
The employee illness violations compound that risk in a specific way. Sal y Mar had no written health policy and employees were not reporting symptoms. That means a worker sick with Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million infections in the United States annually, could have been handling food with no mechanism in place to pull them from service. Norovirus spreads through direct contact with contaminated food and surfaces.
The handwashing findings matter because they eliminate the last line of defense. A worker who has touched a contaminated surface, or who is carrying a pathogen, relies on proper handwashing to stop transmission. At Sal y Mar on September 4, the facilities were inadequate and the technique was wrong. Both failures present at the same time means handwashing was not functioning as a control measure.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties ties all of this together. CDC data shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with it. Without someone on the floor enforcing protocols, the other violations become easier to explain.
The Longer Record
The September 4 inspection is not an isolated event. State records show 18 inspections on file for Sal y Mar, with 141 total violations accumulated across that history.
The pattern of high-severity findings runs deep. The February 3, 2026 inspection produced nine high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, the worst single visit in the recent record. Before that, an April 2025 inspection documented six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, a count that mirrors September's findings almost exactly.
Going further back, a July 2024 inspection found three high-severity violations, an April 2024 visit found three more, and a second inspection on the same date that April found one additional high-severity violation. The October 2025 inspection added three high-severity violations. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The specific categories that keep appearing are worth noting. Management control, illness reporting, and handwashing are not obscure technical requirements. They are the foundational controls that state inspectors are trained to look for first, because their absence predicts other failures downstream. Sal y Mar has been cited in overlapping categories across multiple inspection cycles without a closure order.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations at Sal y Mar on September 4, including undercooked food and the complete absence of an illness reporting system, did not meet that threshold.
The restaurant served customers before the inspection. It served customers after.
State records show 141 violations across 18 inspections and no emergency closures in the facility's history. The September 4 inspection is the most recent entry in that record.
