SEBRING, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors ordered Cang Tong at 110 Sebring Square closed to the public after finding roach and rodent activity inside the restaurant, the sixth time in five months the Highlands County eatery had been shut down for pest-related conditions.
The closure was ordered on March 25, 2026. Inspectors gave the restaurant until March 27 to come into compliance, and records show it did reopen. But that was not the end of the story.
What Inspectors Found
Cang Tong Emergency Closures: October 2025 to April 2026
The March closure was the third emergency shutdown in five weeks. The restaurant had already been closed for roach and rodent activity on February 19, reopened the next day, and then closed again six days later on February 26 for rodent activity alone.
The most recent inspection on record, from May 7, 2026, documents three violations including one high-severity citation for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. That single finding carries the risk of acute chemical poisoning if improperly stored substances contaminate food or food-contact surfaces.
The same May inspection also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal and the reuse of single-use items, both intermediate-level violations.
What These Violations Mean
Roach and rodent activity are among the conditions that trigger automatic emergency closures under Florida food safety rules, and for direct reasons. Both cockroaches and rodents carry pathogens on their bodies and in their waste that can contaminate food, food-prep surfaces, and equipment. A customer eating at a restaurant with active pest presence has no way of knowing that the food they were served was not in contact with those surfaces.
The toxic chemical storage violation documented in May compounds that picture. Chemicals stored near or above food, or in unlabeled containers, can migrate into food through spills or mislabeling. The health risk is acute, not theoretical: chemical poisoning from contaminated food can produce rapid-onset illness.
Improper sewage disposal is a separate and serious pathway for contamination. Raw sewage carries fecal pathogens including E. coli and norovirus. When waste lines are improperly managed inside a food service facility, those pathogens can reach surfaces where food is handled.
The reuse of single-use items, gloves, cups, or utensils designed for one use, creates cross-contamination risk each time a used item is reintroduced into food prep. It is a violation that points to gaps in basic food-handling practice, not just equipment failure.
The Longer Record
The March closure did not emerge from a clean history. State records show Cang Tong has accumulated 616 violations across 56 inspections on record, a figure that works out to roughly 11 violations per inspection on average.
The facility's first emergency closure in this recent stretch came on October 20, 2025, for rodent activity. It reopened the following day. Four months later, in the span of eight days in February 2026, the restaurant was closed twice more, once for combined roach and rodent activity, and once for rodent activity alone.
The March closure was the fourth. Then came two more.
On April 6, 2026, inspectors closed Cang Tong again, this time for roach activity. Records do not confirm that the restaurant ever reopened from that closure. On April 30, 2026, just over five weeks after the March shutdown that is the subject of this article, inspectors returned and found rodent, roach, and fly activity simultaneously. That closure also has no confirmed reopen date on record.
The inspection log from the days surrounding the April 30 closure shows a facility under sustained scrutiny. On April 14, inspectors documented one high-severity and two intermediate violations. On April 15, the same tally. On April 30, the day of the seventh closure, the count rose to six high-severity violations and three intermediate ones.
Six emergency closures in seven months, all for pest activity, with two of the most recent closures unresolved in the record, is a pattern that the violation count alone does not fully capture. Each closure required inspectors to return, document compliance, and clear the facility to reopen. Each time, the underlying conditions returned.
As of the most recent inspection data available, the May 7, 2026 visit found violations still present at the facility. Whether Cang Tong is currently operating, or remains closed following the unconfirmed April 30 shutdown, is not resolved in the inspection record.