TAMPA, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into Tealux Cafe Tampa and found raw shell eggs sitting in the ambient air of a reach-in cooler at 55 degrees, a temperature high enough to accelerate bacterial growth and well above the 41-degree threshold required by food safety code.
That was the priority violation. It was not the only problem.
The inspection, conducted April 3 by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, turned up 14 total violations at the convenience store and food service operation on a day when the business was, by its own permit record, not legally authorized to be open. The establishment was operating without a valid 2026 food permit.
What Inspectors Found
In the back room, the inspector found a spray can of Raid labeled "for indoor residential use only" stored on the floor near sugar bins. The inspector noted the product was removed from the establishment during the visit. Residential pesticide products are not approved for use in food establishments, where only commercial-grade, food-safe pest control products applied by licensed operators are permitted.
The back room also had no soap and no paper towels at the handwashing sink next to the three-compartment sink. Those were provided before the inspector left.
In the front food service area, crab sticks, fish balls, and spam that had been opened more than 24 hours prior were sitting in the display cooler with no date markings. The same was true for half and half in the teas reach-in cooler, opened more than 24 hours prior and unmarked. All were date marked during the inspection.
The person in charge could not correctly answer questions related to foodborne illness prevention, and employees had not been informed in a verifiable manner of their responsibility to report health conditions that could cause illness in customers. The establishment also had no written procedures for responding to a vomiting or diarrheal event.
A squeeze bottle of liquid brown sugar in the front food service area was not labeled with its common name. Bins of brown sugar and sugar in the back room were also unlabeled. Employees working with exposed foods were not wearing effective hair restraints. Single-service spoons and forks in the retail area were not stored inverted in their holder on the counter.
The handwashing sign in the back room was posted above the three-compartment sink rather than above the designated handwashing sink. The men's and women's restroom doors were not self-closing.
None of the 14 violations were marked as repeat citations from a prior inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The priority violation, raw shell eggs stored at 55 degrees, matters because shell eggs that have not been treated to destroy Salmonella must be kept at or below 41 degrees. At 55 degrees, bacterial growth accelerates. A customer purchasing or consuming food prepared with those eggs faces a meaningfully higher risk of illness. The inspector noted the eggs were relocated to a colder cooler during the visit, but no corrected-on-site notation was recorded for the violation itself.
The unlabeled food containers are a separate but related concern. When bins, bottles, and cooler items are not identified by their common name, there is no reliable way for employees or inspectors to confirm what is inside or how long it has been open. The missing date marks on the crab sticks, fish balls, spam, and half and half compound this: ready-to-eat foods that are time and temperature controlled for safety must be date marked so that staff can discard them before they become a hazard.
The Raid finding is worth understanding on its own terms. A residential insecticide stored near sugar bins is not a minor administrative issue. Residential products are not formulated or tested for food service environments, and their presence near open food ingredients creates a contamination risk that commercial pest control protocols are specifically designed to prevent.
The employee health policy failures, including staff not informed of their illness reporting responsibilities and a person in charge who could not correctly answer basic foodborne illness questions, represent a structural gap. These are not one-time oversights. They reflect whether a facility has systems in place to keep a sick employee from handling food. Tealux Cafe Tampa, as of April 3, did not have those systems documented or verified.
The Longer Record
The data available for this inspection does not include a prior inspection count for Tealux Cafe Tampa, which limits how far back the record can be traced. What the April 3 inspection does establish is that the facility was operating without a valid 2026 food permit on the day the inspector arrived, meaning the business had not completed the renewal process required to legally operate in the current calendar year.
None of the 14 violations were flagged as repeats, which suggests either that prior inspections did not document the same categories of problems, or that the facility's inspection history is limited. The absence of repeat designations does not mean the violations are isolated. It means there is no documented prior warning on record for these specific findings.
The permit violation remained unresolved at the time of inspection, marked with a notation indicating it was not corrected on site.