PLANT CITY, FL. State inspectors ordered Esposito Pizza on James L. Redman Parkway closed on September 29 after documenting fly activity serious enough to warrant an emergency shutdown, the third time regulators have pulled the plug on the Plant City restaurant since January 2024.
The closure notice required the restaurant to vacate by October 1. Inspectors returned that same day and cleared the location to reopen, with the facility meeting state standards as of 10:10 a.m.
What Inspectors Found
Esposito Pizza: Recent Inspection Record
The September 29 inspection produced two high-severity and two intermediate violations. Fly activity was the trigger, the specific finding that meets the threshold for an emergency order under Florida food safety law.
Inspectors returned on September 30 and found two high-severity violations and one intermediate violation still unresolved. A second visit that same day showed one high-severity and one intermediate violation remaining. It took until the morning of October 1 for the restaurant to clear all high-priority concerns and earn permission to reopen.
What This Means
Fly activity is not a housekeeping citation. Flies carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their legs and bodies, picking up pathogens from waste and transferring them directly to food surfaces, preparation equipment, and finished dishes. A single fly landing on an uncovered pizza or a prep surface is a direct contamination pathway.
The volume of fly activity matters. State inspectors do not issue emergency closure orders for a fly near a window. The threshold for an emergency shutdown is a finding that poses an immediate threat to public health, meaning inspectors observed enough fly activity in food preparation or storage areas to conclude customers could not safely be served.
The closure also came during active service hours. Customers eating at Esposito Pizza on the afternoon of September 29 were eating in a restaurant that would be ordered shut before the day was out.
The Pattern
This was not Esposito Pizza's first emergency closure, and it was not its first pest problem.
On January 4, 2024, state inspectors shut the same restaurant down for roach activity. State records do not confirm that the restaurant ever formally reopened following that closure, meaning the January 2024 shutdown may have resolved informally without a documented follow-up clearance.
The September 2026 closure for flies is the second confirmed emergency order at this address, and the third pest-related enforcement action in less than two years.
The March 2026 inspection was the most violation-heavy recent visit on record, producing six high-severity and three intermediate violations. The October 2025 inspection found five high-severity and one intermediate violation. Neither of those inspections resulted in a closure order, but both showed the restaurant accumulating serious citations at a rate that placed it well above routine compliance concerns.
The Longer Record
Esposito Pizza has 33 inspections on record at this address and 145 total violations documented across those visits. That works out to an average of more than four violations per inspection over the facility's inspection history.
The two most recent full inspection cycles, in spring and fall 2025, each produced multiple high-severity violations. The March 2026 inspection raised that count to six high-severity citations in a single visit. The September 2026 closure came six months after that worst-on-record inspection.
A facility with 33 inspections and 145 violations, two confirmed emergency closures, and a third pest-related enforcement action tells a different story than a restaurant catching a bad inspection on an off day. The record at this address is a cumulative one, built visit by visit over years.
The restaurant cleared its October 1 inspection with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations and was permitted to reopen. Whether the underlying conditions that produced three pest-related enforcement actions in under two years have been durably addressed is not something a single passing inspection can answer.
State records for the January 2024 roach closure still show no confirmed reopen date.
