FLORIDA. Inspectors visiting the Applebee's on Dunlawton Avenue in Port Orange between April and July found four separate high-severity violations, including food not cooked to the required minimum temperature and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, making it the worst-performing Applebee's location in Florida during that stretch.
The Port Orange location also drew citations for improperly using time as a public health control and for failing to post a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A single intermediate violation for inadequate ventilation and lighting rounded out the inspection record. That is five violations in a 90-day window at a single address.
No Florida Applebee's location was emergency-closed during this period. But the inspection records across the chain's 78 Florida restaurants tell a story that goes beyond one bad quarter at one address.
The Violations
The Applebee's on Cypress Gardens Boulevard in Winter Haven recorded the second-highest violation count, with three high-severity citations and two intermediate ones. One of those high-severity violations was for food from an unapproved or unknown source, a finding that cuts to the root of the supply chain. The other two high-severity citations involved parasite destruction procedures not being followed and, again, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Winter Haven also drew an intermediate citation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal, a finding that does not appear at any other location in this review period.
The Applebee's on SR 54 in Wesley Chapel and the Applebee's on McMullen Booth Road in Clearwater each accumulated two high-severity violations. Wesley Chapel's citations were for unsanitized food contact surfaces and missing consumer advisory. Clearwater's were for an employee not reporting symptoms of illness and, again, the absent consumer advisory.
The Applebee's on Rasberry Road in Crestview, the Applebee's on Capital Circle NW in Tallahassee, and the Applebee's on North Tyndall Parkway in Callaway each drew one high-severity violation. The Callaway location's citation was for improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals, the only chemical-storage violation among the seven flagged locations.
A Chain Pattern, Not Isolated Incidents
Across all 78 Florida locations, state inspectors have conducted 2,079 inspections on record. The chain's average is 5.57 violations per inspection, and its statewide pass rate sits at 89.74 percent, meaning roughly one in ten inspections results in a failed outcome.
The most consistent violation across this 90-day period is the missing consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. It appears at six of the seven flagged locations, including Port Orange, Winter Haven, Wesley Chapel, Clearwater, Crestview, and Tallahassee.
That is not a coincidence. It is a training and compliance failure that is repeating itself at locations from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast to Central Florida.
What These Violations Mean
The missing consumer advisory is the most widespread violation in this review, but it is not merely a paperwork problem. State code requires restaurants serving raw or undercooked animal products, including burgers cooked to order, seared steaks, or raw shellfish, to notify customers. Without that notice, elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system cannot make an informed choice about what they order. Six Applebee's locations in Florida failed to provide that notice during this period.
The food temperature violation at Port Orange carries a more immediate risk. Undercooking is a leading pathway for Salmonella survival in poultry. Salmonella does not die below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a single improperly cooked piece of chicken can be enough to cause serious illness.
The food from an unapproved source citation at Winter Haven raises a different kind of concern. When food enters a restaurant through an unverified supply chain, there is no traceability. If a customer becomes ill, investigators cannot trace the product back to its origin, test the batch, or determine how many other restaurants received the same shipment.
The employee illness reporting failure at Clearwater is among the most acutely dangerous violations on this list. Norovirus and Hepatitis A spread directly from infected food workers to customers through hand contact with food. An employee who does not report symptoms, or is not required to, can expose every customer served during that shift. The Clearwater location's citation for this violation during the April-to-July window is a finding that deserves attention on its own.
The Longer Record
The statewide inspection count of 2,079 across 78 locations averages to roughly 26 inspections per location over the life of each restaurant's record. That baseline matters when evaluating how the flagged locations fit into the chain's longer history.
The violations documented this spring and summer are not the product of new restaurants still working out operational problems. Applebee's has been a fixture in Florida for decades, and the locations flagged here, from Port Orange to Callaway, are established addresses with substantial inspection histories behind them.
The consumer advisory violation appearing at six locations simultaneously suggests the problem is systemic rather than site-specific. A single location missing a menu disclosure could be an oversight. Six locations across different markets, different management teams, and different regions of the state missing the same disclosure in the same 90-day period points toward a chain-level compliance gap.
The Winter Haven location stands apart from the others in one respect. Its combination of a food-from-unapproved-sources citation alongside a parasite destruction failure and a sewage disposal problem represents the broadest range of serious violation categories at any single address in this review. Those three issues touch supply chain integrity, food preparation safety, and facility sanitation at the same time.
The Callaway location's improperly stored toxic chemicals citation does not appear at any other address in this dataset. That isolation makes it harder to characterize as a chain-wide pattern, but it is no less serious at the location where inspectors found it.
Across 2,079 inspections, the chain's Florida record shows an average of 5.57 violations per visit. The seven locations flagged here all exceeded or matched the chain's own average in high-severity findings alone, before intermediate violations are counted.
The consumer advisory for raw and undercooked foods is still missing from the inspection record at six Florida Applebee's locations as of the most recent filings in this dataset.
