WINTER GARDEN, FL. A state inspector walked into Aji Sushi and Teppan on Daniels Road on June 1 and found that the restaurant had no documented procedure for keeping sick employees out of the kitchen, no system for employees to report illness symptoms, and was sourcing food from unapproved or unknown suppliers. The facility logged 10 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate violations that day. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most serious in the inspection record. When a restaurant cannot document where its food came from, there is no chain of traceability if a customer gets sick. For a sushi and teppan restaurant serving raw fish, that gap is compounded by a separate citation for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures. Proper freezing protocols are required before raw fish is served to kill parasites including Anisakis, a roundworm found in marine fish. The inspector found those protocols were not being followed.
The shellfish citation adds another layer. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning the restaurant could not demonstrate that its oysters, clams, or mussels came from certified, tested waters. Shellfish are frequently consumed raw and are among the most common vehicles for Norovirus and Vibrio infections.
Two separate handwashing violations were cited on the same visit: inadequate handwashing by food employees, and improper hand and arm washing technique. Both appeared in the same inspection, which means the problem was not simply that employees skipped washing. It means that when they did wash, they were doing it wrong.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. In a kitchen where raw fish is being handled and plated, an unlabeled or misplaced chemical container is not a paperwork problem.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and no active illness reporting is what public health officials call a structural gap. A written policy is not bureaucratic overhead. It is the mechanism that tells a worker with a fever or diarrhea to stay home, and gives management the authority to send them home. Without it, a Norovirus-infected employee can work an entire shift, contaminating surfaces, utensils, and food. Norovirus causes an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and restaurant workers are among the most common transmission sources.
The parasite destruction failure is specific to this type of restaurant. Sushi menus depend on raw or lightly prepared fish. The FDA requires that fish served raw be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations to kill parasites. Anisakis larvae, for example, can survive in raw fish and cause severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and in some cases require surgical removal. A consumer advisory on the menu is the minimum disclosure to customers who might be pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised. Aji had neither the parasite controls nor the advisory in place on June 1.
Improper sewage disposal rounds out a picture of a facility where multiple independent systems, food sourcing, employee hygiene, food preparation safety, waste handling, and chemical storage, all showed failures on the same day.
The Longer Record
The June 1 inspection was not an aberration. State records show Aji Sushi and Teppan has been inspected 33 times and has accumulated 448 total violations across its history. That is an average of more than 13 violations per inspection across the facility's record.
The pattern of high-severity citations is consistent and recent. In November 2025, inspectors cited 16 high-severity violations in a single visit. In August 2024, the count was 12 high-severity violations. In April 2025, inspectors returned three times in eight days, finding 7, 8, and 3 high-severity violations across those visits.
A follow-up inspection on June 3, two days after the visit that produced 10 high-severity violations, found 4 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. Some problems were addressed. Others were not.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history.
The Longer Pattern
What the record shows is a restaurant that has cycled through serious violations, partial corrections, and repeat citations across multiple inspection years. The violations documented on June 1, including food from unapproved sources, no illness policy, and parasite procedure failures, are not the kinds of problems that appear because a mop bucket was left in the wrong place. They reflect decisions about how the restaurant sources its food, trains its staff, and manages food safety fundamentals.
On June 1, 2026, an inspector documented 10 high-severity violations at Aji Sushi and Teppan on Daniels Road. Customers who ate there that day were not told.