CLEARWATER, FL. A sports bar on Cleveland Street was cited last month for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish on its menu, a violation that means customers may have been served seafood with live parasites, and the bar never closed its doors.
State inspectors visited 45 Sports Bar & Lounge at 1409 Cleveland St. on April 30 and documented six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation did not order an emergency closure.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction citation is among the most specific food-safety failures the April 30 report documents. When a facility serves fish that can harbor parasites such as Anisakis or tapeworm, state code requires that the fish be frozen to precise temperatures for set periods before service, or cooked to temperatures that kill parasites. The inspection record shows those procedures were not followed.
Two separate handwashing violations were also cited on the same visit. Inspectors documented both that employees were not washing their hands adequately and that the technique used during washing was improper. Those are distinct citations, meaning inspectors observed the problem and then watched it persist.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils had not been cleaned properly. The bar also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, which is required to warn customers who face elevated health risks. The intermediate citation for improper sewage or waste water disposal rounds out a list that covers nearly every major contamination pathway a kitchen can produce in a single visit.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction failure is not a paperwork problem. Parasites including Anisakis roundworm, found in many saltwater fish, survive in raw or undercooked fish and can cause severe abdominal pain, nausea, and intestinal damage in people who eat them. The freezing and cooking protocols exist precisely because parasites are invisible to the eye and survive normal refrigeration temperatures. When a facility skips those protocols, every fish dish served that day carries the risk.
The two handwashing violations compound that risk. Improper handwashing is the most direct route for pathogens to travel from an employee's hands to a customer's plate. The fact that inspectors cited both inadequate washing and improper technique at 45 Sports Bar suggests the problem was not a single lapse but a pattern observed during the inspection.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and utensils create what food safety researchers call a bacterial biofilm, a layer of microorganisms that builds on cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning. Standard sanitizers do not penetrate mature biofilms effectively, meaning contamination can persist across multiple service periods.
The sewage disposal citation carries a separate and acute risk. Improperly handled waste water can introduce fecal contamination into areas where food is prepared or stored. At 45 Sports Bar, that violation was documented in the same inspection as the handwashing failures and the unclean food contact surfaces.
The Longer Record
The April 30 inspection is the fifth on record for 45 Sports Bar & Lounge, and it produced the most violations the facility has accumulated in a single visit. The prior four inspections account for 23 total violations across the facility's history, and the April 30 report added six high-severity and two intermediate citations to that total.
The pattern is uneven but not improving. Inspectors found no violations at all during a June 2024 visit and again during a June 2025 visit. But a December 2024 inspection produced two high-severity violations and one intermediate, and an April 2025 inspection produced three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations.
The April 2025 inspection, just one year before the most recent visit, already showed high-severity violations. Twelve months later, the high-severity count doubled. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
Still Open
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when violations pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations, including a parasite destruction failure, two distinct handwashing failures, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and a sewage disposal problem, did not meet that threshold at 45 Sports Bar & Lounge on April 30.
The bar remained open that day, and the record does not show a follow-up inspection date.