CLERMONT, FL. Food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures at a Clermont buffet on October 2, a finding that puts every customer who ate there that day at direct risk of Salmonella and other pathogens that survive undercooking, state inspection records show.
The inspection of New Chinese Buffet Inc. on East Highway 50 turned up seven high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation was one of seven high-severity findings. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled, a condition that can cause acute poisoning if chemicals contaminate food through mislabeling or proximity to food prep surfaces.
Inspectors also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness, a violation that public health officials consistently identify as the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus and Hepatitis A spread directly through this route.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, creating a cross-contamination pathway for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items. Employees were also observed using improper handwashing technique, meaning pathogens remained on workers' hands even after a washing attempt was made.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Without that notice, elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems have no way to make an informed choice about what they order.
The person in charge was either absent or not performing supervisory duties. That single finding, inspectors and public health researchers note, correlates directly with the volume of other violations found on the same visit.
What These Violations Mean
Undercooking is not a paperwork problem. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a buffet setting compounds the risk because large quantities of food cycle through continuously. A single undercooked batch can expose dozens of customers before anyone notices a problem.
The illness-reporting failure is equally direct. When food workers handle food while symptomatic, they become a transmission vector. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, can spread from a single infected worker to every dish they touch.
Improper chemical storage is a different category of danger. If unlabeled or misplaced chemicals contaminate food, the result is acute poisoning, not the delayed onset of a bacterial infection. Customers would have no way to connect their symptoms to a specific dish.
The combination of no person in charge and employees not reporting illness symptoms is particularly telling. Research from the CDC shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of supervised kitchens. At New Chinese Buffet, both conditions existed simultaneously on October 2.
The Longer Record
New Chinese Buffet: Recent Inspection History
October 2 was not a bad day at New Chinese Buffet. It was a typical one.
State records show 41 inspections on file for the restaurant, with 743 total violations documented across that history. The July 31, 2026 inspection alone produced 13 high-severity and 8 intermediate violations, the worst single visit in the recent record. The October 2 inspection came just two months later.
The pattern of high-severity violations is not new and not isolated. Six of the eight most recent inspections on record each produced at least seven high-severity violations. The categories repeat: food handling, employee conduct, management oversight.
Three inspections took place within a ten-day window in February 2025, a sequence that suggests a follow-up process was underway. The first visit that month found 11 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations. The third found 2 high and 2 intermediate, a number consistent with a facility that had addressed the most urgent findings. By August 2025, the count was back to 9 high-severity violations.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its 41 inspections on record.
After the October 2 inspection, New Chinese Buffet on East Highway 50 remained open for business.
