Health Inspectors Found Frozen Seafood In Buckets At Mama Tina’s Gumbo After Customer Illness Fiasco

Mama Tina’s Gumbo faced a temporary shutdown at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo after health inspectors found serious food safety violations following a customer complaint about illness. A customer who ate the gumbo on March 16 reported developing vomiting, chills, nausea, fever, and even throwing up blood. Houston Health Department investigators responded the same […]

Mama Tina’s Gumbo faced a temporary shutdown at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo after health inspectors found serious food safety violations following a customer complaint about illness.

A customer who ate the gumbo on March 16 reported developing vomiting, chills, nausea, fever, and even throwing up blood.

Houston Health Department investigators responded the same day and found multiple critical violations.

The inspection revealed that the gumbo had been prepared off-site, cooled, and placed in non-food-grade orange buckets before being transported to an unlicensed freezer.

From there, it was moved to a refrigerated trailer at the rodeo, where it thawed before being served. The operators had no temperature logs documenting the cooling or storage process.

Inspectors observed bags of frozen shrimp and crab labeled “keep frozen” that had thawed. All prepared gumbo had to be discarded due to the violations.

The Houston Health Department cited six specific reasons for the discard order: food stored in non-food grade containers that could contaminate the product, food stored in an unpermitted facility then transported from an unapproved source, a food source used after the first day of the rodeo that wasn’t on the approved permit, no documentation of proper cooling temperatures and times, no date marking for food prepared more than 24 hours prior, and frozen food that wasn’t kept frozen.

Health inspectors educated the operators on corrective actions, including rapid cooling methods, date-marking instructions, and proper thawing procedures.

The operators were cooperative and committed to ceasing off-site food preparation.

When inspectors returned on March 17 for a pre-opening inspection, Mama Tina’s had made significant changes.

They swapped the refrigerated trailer for a freezer trailer with all food stored frozen solid.

Gumbo preparation shifted to be made fresh on-site each morning before serving. The operator confirmed there would be no mixing of previously cooked, cooled or reheated product with freshly made gumbo.

The restaurant was cleared to reopen that Tuesday afternoon. It remains unclear if the Houston Health Department received additional complaints about connected illnesses.

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