OCKLAWAHA, FL. State inspectors walked into Spike's Deli on East Highway 25 on September 10 and found employees who were not reporting illness symptoms, food in poor or adulterated condition, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and a sewage disposal problem, among six total high-severity violations. The deli was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The most direct threat to anyone who ate at the deli that day was the combination of illness reporting and handwashing failures. Inspectors cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and cited the facility for having no adequate written employee health policy to require them to do so.
Those two violations do not exist in isolation. Without a policy compelling sick workers to stay home, and without a manager present and performing oversight duties, the mechanism for catching an ill employee before they handle food simply does not exist.
The inspector also found food in poor condition or adulterated, a violation that means something served or prepared at the deli was spoiled, contaminated, or otherwise unfit. Food contact surfaces, meaning the cutting boards, prep tables, or equipment that touches food directly, were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
The sewage or wastewater disposal violation rounds out the picture. That citation, classified as intermediate rather than high-severity, nonetheless documents a facility where waste was not being disposed of correctly, creating a pathway for fecal contamination.
What These Violations Mean
The illness reporting violations are the ones that drive multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads through the fecal-oral route, meaning a sick food worker who does not wash hands correctly or who handles food while symptomatic can infect dozens of customers through a single shift. The CDC estimates Norovirus causes 20 million illnesses annually in the United States.
Spike's Deli had both sides of that failure documented on the same day: employees not reporting illness symptoms, and employees using improper handwashing technique. Even a worker who tries to wash their hands can leave pathogens behind if the technique is wrong. The combination makes the illness reporting problem significantly worse.
The adulterated or poor-condition food violation adds a second independent risk. A customer does not need a sick worker to get ill from food that was spoiled or contaminated before it was prepared. That violation stands on its own.
The sewage finding at Spike's Deli is the kind of citation that amplifies everything else. Raw sewage contains concentrated fecal bacteria. Improper disposal in a food service environment means that contamination can reach surfaces, equipment, or food preparation areas, turning a plumbing problem into a food safety emergency.
The Longer Record
This was not a one-bad-day inspection. Spike's Deli has been inspected seven times total, and the September 10 visit produced the most high-severity violations in its recorded history, six in a single inspection.
The pattern across prior visits is consistent. Inspectors found four high-severity violations in January 2026 and four more in February 2025. The November 2024 inspection produced two high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The facility has accumulated 26 total violations across its inspection record.
Two inspections, in October 2024 and March 2026, came back clean with zero violations. That makes the September 2026 findings harder to explain as a facility that simply hasn't learned the rules. The deli demonstrated it can pass an inspection. It also demonstrated that compliance does not hold.
The facility has never been emergency-closed. Six high-severity violations on September 10, 2026, including failures tied directly to outbreak risk, and Spike's Deli remained open for business.
The Deli Stayed Open
Florida's emergency closure authority exists for exactly the kind of situation documented at Spike's Deli on September 10: multiple high-severity violations, illness reporting failures, no adequate health policy, improper handwashing, adulterated food, unsanitary food contact surfaces, and a sewage disposal problem, all found in a single visit.
The state did not use it.
The inspection record now shows seven visits, 26 cumulative violations, and a facility that has twice logged four high-severity violations in a single inspection before reaching six. No emergency closure has ever been ordered.
Customers who ate at Spike's Deli on or around September 10, 2026 did so at a facility where, according to state records, sick employees were not required by any adequate written policy to report their symptoms, and where the person responsible for overseeing food safety was not present or not doing that job.
