POMPANO BEACH, FL. When a state inspector walked into Tezka at 2001 N Federal Highway on September 17, 2026, they found a restaurant operating without a written employee health policy, without a person in charge performing their duties, and with food documented as being in poor condition — six high-severity violations in a single visit.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection documented six high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. That tally puts September 17 among the worst single-day inspection results in Tezka's recorded history.
The most structurally alarming finding was the absence of an employee health policy combined with a separate citation for employees not reporting illness symptoms. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where a worker could arrive sick, handle food, and face no formal requirement to disclose it.
The person in charge was either absent or not performing their duties, the inspector noted. According to CDC data cited in the inspection record, establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged oversight.
Inspectors also cited improper hand and arm washing technique. The distinction matters: an employee can approach a sink and still leave pathogens on their hands if the technique is wrong. The violation documents that the attempt was made incorrectly, not that handwashing was skipped entirely, but the public health outcome is the same.
Food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated was also flagged, along with a failure to follow required procedures for specialized processes. Tezka's menu leans heavily on preparations, including cured and specialty items, that require precise process controls to prevent bacterial growth. The inspection record does not specify which product or process was cited.
Multi-use utensils were documented as not properly cleaned, the one intermediate violation on the report.
What These Violations Mean
The pairing of no employee health policy and no illness reporting is the violation combination most directly associated with multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, spreads most efficiently when a sick food worker handles ready-to-eat food. A written health policy is the mechanism that requires workers to disclose symptoms and stay home. Without one at Tezka, there was no formal barrier between a symptomatic employee and a customer's plate.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk. Studies show that even well-intentioned handwashing removes far fewer pathogens than correct technique. When the person responsible for enforcing those standards is not present or not performing their duties, as was documented here, there is no one on the floor to catch the lapse.
The specialized process violation carries its own distinct risk. Processes like curing, smoking, fermenting, or reduced-oxygen packaging require exact time and temperature controls because they create conditions where dangerous bacteria can grow if the protocol is not followed precisely. A deviation that goes unmonitored does not produce a visible warning sign on the food.
Food in poor condition cited at the same visit means customers were potentially served product that had already degraded. The inspection record does not identify which item was flagged, but the violation is classified high-severity because the harm is direct and immediate.
The Longer Record
Tezka has nine inspections on record across roughly four years of documented history, accumulating 25 total violations. The September 2026 inspection accounts for six of those high-severity violations in a single visit, more than any prior inspection in the facility's record.
The prior two inspections told a different story. The February 2026 visit found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. The August 2025 visit found one high-severity violation and nothing at the intermediate level. Those clean or near-clean results make the September 2026 findings harder to attribute to a gradual drift.
The facility's worst prior stretch was in August 2022, when inspectors cited three high-severity violations. That was followed by a clean visit two months later in October 2022, and the pattern since has been inconsistent, with occasional high-severity citations separated by inspections that found little or nothing.
Tezka has never been emergency-closed in its recorded inspection history. The September 2026 inspection did not change that.
Still Open
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when violations pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations, including no illness policy, no illness reporting, and food in poor condition, did not meet that threshold on September 17, 2026.
The restaurant remained open to customers that day and in the days that followed.
The inspection record does not indicate when a follow-up visit is scheduled or whether the violations cited have since been corrected.
