SANFORD, FL. State inspectors walked into Akira on West Lake Mary Boulevard on September 28 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means there is no way to trace where that food came from if a customer gets sick.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also cited no employee health policy, a separate finding from the related violation that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Those two citations together describe a kitchen where sick workers had no written obligation to disclose their condition and, in practice, were not doing so.
Person in charge was cited as not present or not performing duties. Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food areas. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils showed the same problem.
Single-use items were being reused. Time as a public health control was not properly applied, meaning food was being held in the temperature danger zone without the documentation required to make that practice legal. No consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods was posted, a requirement at any restaurant serving sushi or other raw items.
Four intermediate violations accompanied the nine high-severity citations: improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, reused single-use items, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and equipment in poor repair.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is one of the most consequential on the list. When food arrives from unapproved or unknown suppliers, it has bypassed the USDA and FDA inspection chain entirely. If a customer becomes ill after eating at Akira, investigators would have no supplier records to follow. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli have all been traced to uninspected supply chains in past outbreak investigations.
The illness policy violations compound each other in a direct way. A kitchen without a written employee health policy gives workers no formal guidance about when to stay home. The separate finding that employees were not reporting symptoms means that gap in policy translated into practice on the day inspectors arrived. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads most efficiently through food handled by symptomatic workers.
Improper handwashing technique is distinct from not washing hands at all. It means workers were going through the motion of washing without removing pathogens effectively. Studies show that technique failures leave contamination levels nearly as high as no washing at all.
The consumer advisory violation is specific to Akira's menu. A restaurant serving raw fish is required to notify customers, on the menu or through posted signage, that consuming raw or undercooked food carries health risks. Pregnant women, elderly diners, and people with compromised immune systems face the highest exposure. None of them were warned.
The Longer Record
Akira Inspection History, Selected Visits
The September 28 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Akira has been inspected 27 times and has accumulated 289 total violations across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Four of the eight most recent inspections on record produced seven or more high-severity violations each. The January 2025 visit found 8 high-severity violations. The July 2025 visit found 8. The January 2026 visit found 7. The September 28 visit found 9.
The pattern is interrupted twice by clean inspections, in September 2025 and January 2026, both of which showed zero high-severity violations. Those results sit directly alongside visits that produced the highest violation counts in the recent record, which suggests the underlying conditions at the restaurant are not being corrected in any durable way.
A follow-up inspection on September 30, two days after the visit that produced nine high-severity violations, found 4 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. A second follow-up on October 9 found 3 high-severity violations.
Open for Business
Florida law gives inspectors the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Nine high-severity violations, including food from unknown sources, no illness reporting policy, and improperly stored toxic chemicals, did not meet that threshold at Akira on September 28.
Eleven days and two follow-up inspections later, the restaurant still had three high-severity violations on record.
