NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL. A food service facility inside a residential community was ordered shut down on July 10 after state inspectors determined it had no warewashing facilities on site, meaning there was no functional equipment to clean and sanitize the dishes, pots, and utensils used to prepare and serve food.
Preserve at Turnbull Bay, located at 2600 Turnbull Estates Drive in New Smyrna Beach, was issued an emergency closure order by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. As of the date of this report, state records do not confirm the facility has been allowed to reopen.
The closure was not triggered by a single lapse in procedure. Inspectors documented four violations during the July 10 visit, two of them high-severity.
What Inspectors Found
Beyond the absent warewashing equipment, inspectors cited food employees for inadequate handwashing, one of the most direct routes for spreading foodborne illness. They also found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, a violation that creates conditions for dangerous pathogens to survive and reach whoever eats the meal.
The two intermediate violations compounded the picture. Inspectors documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal at the facility, and found that multi-use utensils were not being properly cleaned.
Taken together, the July 10 inspection captured a facility without the basic infrastructure to clean its own equipment, with employees not washing their hands adequately, and with food not reaching safe cooking temperatures.
What These Violations Mean
The closure trigger, no warewashing facilities, is not a procedural technicality. Without functioning equipment to wash, rinse, and sanitize dishes and utensils, every surface that contacts food becomes a potential vehicle for bacterial contamination. A facility serving food under those conditions has no reliable way to break the chain of cross-contamination between meals or between food types.
The handwashing violation makes that risk acute. Improper handwashing is the single most documented factor in the spread of foodborne illness in food service settings. Hands that touch raw protein, surfaces, or waste and are not properly cleaned carry pathogens directly to ready-to-eat food. In a facility that also lacks equipment to sanitize utensils, the contamination pathways multiply.
The undercooked food violation adds a third layer. Pathogens like Salmonella in poultry survive below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Serving food that has not reached minimum cooking temperature means any bacteria present in the raw product is still alive when the food reaches the plate.
The sewage disposal violation is the one that can affect the entire facility environment. Improper wastewater handling creates conditions for fecal contamination to spread beyond any single surface or piece of equipment. Combined with the absence of working warewashing equipment, it means the facility had no functional means of cleaning what the contamination could reach.
The Longer Record
Preserve at Turnbull Bay: Inspection History
The July 10 closure is the second emergency closure in this facility's inspection record. State records show nine inspections on file, with 28 total violations documented across those visits. Only one inspection, in April 2024, produced zero violations at any severity level.
Seven of the eight remaining inspections produced at least one high-severity violation. The December 2024 and February 2024 inspections each documented three high-severity violations, the highest single-visit counts in the facility's record. The April 2025 inspection found two high-severity violations. The pattern is consistent: high-severity findings have appeared at Preserve at Turnbull Bay in nearly every inspection cycle going back to October 2023.
The April 2026 inspection, three months before the closure, found one high-severity and two intermediate violations. That visit did not result in a closure order. The July visit, which added a second high-severity violation and the absence of any warewashing equipment, did.
State records do not show a confirmed reopening date. The facility may still be closed.
