HOUSTON \u2013 Houston health inspectors investigating a customer illness complaint after eating Mama Tina\u2019s Gumbo at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo found thawed seafood labeled \u201ckeep frozen\u201d and learned the gumbo had been moved to a freezer at an unlicensed off-site location without temperature logs before being served, according to Houston Health Department records obtained by KPRC 2 News.<\/p>\n
The complaint, received March 16, described a customer who said she ate gumbo in the afternoon and later developed symptoms including vomiting, chills, nausea and fever, the records show. The customer also reported she was \u201cthrowing up blood,\u201d according to the complaint. <\/p>\n
What inspectors found<\/p>\n
Health department investigators responded to the pop-up shop, featuring Beyonce\u2019s mothers\u2019 cherished family recipe, on Monday, March 16. <\/p>\n
Inspectors learned the gumbo had been prepared at an off-site location where it was cooled, placed into non-food grade orange buckets and taken to a freezer at an unlicensed location, records show. The frozen gumbo then got taken to a refrigerated trailer at the rodeo where it was kept to thaw before being served.<\/p>\n
But operators of Mama Tina\u2019s didn\u2019t have any temperature logs showing the cooling or storing time, and the inspector \u201cobserved bags of frozen shrimp and crab with a label that stated \u2018keep frozen.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
All of the food no longer in its frozen state had to be discarded, the inspector wrote.<\/p>\n
Inspectors said the following reasons led to all of the prepared gumbo being discarded:<\/p>\n
Food being stored inside of non-food grade containers that may contaminate food<\/p>\n
Food being stored inside of an unpermitted facility, then transported for service from the unapproved source<\/p>\n
Food source used after the first day of the rodeo was not listed on the approved permit application<\/p>\n
No documentation showing proper cooling temperatures and times for foods<\/p>\n
No date marking for food prepared more than 24 hours prior<\/p>\n
Frozen food not kept frozen<\/p>\n
After all the findings, inspectors said they educated the operators on corrective action, including rapid cooling methods, datemarking instructions, and proper thawing methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperators were very cooperative and asked questions about how to gain compliance with the department. Operators stated that they will cease food preparation at an off-site facility and only prepared foods on-site, pending department\u2019s approval of the new permit application,\u201d the records state.<\/p>\n
Cleared to reopen<\/p>\n
Inspectors returned on Tuesday, March 17, to perform a pre-opening inspection.<\/p>\n
Mama Tina\u2019s Gumbo had swapped out a refrigerated trailer for a freezer trailer and all food stored inside was frozen solid, according to records, and the preparation of gumbo shifted to be made on-site daily in the morning before serving.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperator confirmed that there will be no comingling of previously cooked\/cooled\/reheated product and the freshly made product,\u201d the records state.<\/p>\n
Mama Tina\u2019s was cleared to re-open on that Tuesday afternoon, according to the Houston Health Department.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if the department received any additional complaints about any possibly connected illnesses.<\/p>\n
KPRC 2 News has reached out to a representative for Mama Tina\u2019s Gumbo for a response.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Houston health inspectors investigating a customer illness complaint after eating Mama Tina\u2019s Gumbo at the Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[405,56,58,30884,28002,57,75092,6795],"class_list":["post-216916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-health-department","tag-houston-livestock-show-and-rodeo","tag-houston-news","tag-mama-tinas-gumbo","tag-rodeo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}