CASSELBERRY, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly near food at An Vi Vietnamese Food and Crawfish Cajun on State Road 436 when a state inspector arrived on September 17, a violation that carries the risk of acute chemical poisoning through contamination or mislabeling. The restaurant was not closed.
That single citation was one of six high-severity violations documented during the visit. The others covered handwashing failures, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and a missing consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Four intermediate violations were also recorded.
What Inspectors Found
Two of the six high-severity violations involved handwashing. Inspectors cited employees for both inadequate handwashing frequency and improper technique, meaning workers were either skipping handwashing entirely or performing it incorrectly. Those are treated as separate violations because one compounds the other: a worker who washes hands poorly is still leaving pathogens behind.
The restaurant also had no written employee health policy, no mechanism to keep sick workers out of the kitchen. That gap sits alongside the handwashing failures as a direct route for illness to move from an employee's body onto a customer's plate.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and the sanitizing solution or procedures were also flagged as improper at the intermediate level. That combination means surfaces were both visibly unclean and not chemically treated to kill what remained.
What These Violations Mean
The handwashing violations at An Vi are not paperwork failures. They describe a kitchen where the most basic barrier between a worker's hands and a customer's food was not functioning. Norovirus, Salmonella, and E. coli travel this route. A worker who handles raw crawfish, fails to wash properly, and then plates a finished dish has created a direct transmission path that no amount of cooking at the end of the process can fully correct.
The chemical storage violation raises a separate and more acute concern. Cleaning agents and sanitizers stored near or above food preparation surfaces can contaminate food through spills, mislabeled containers, or aerosol drift. Unlike bacterial illness, which typically takes hours or days to manifest, chemical poisoning can cause symptoms within minutes of ingestion.
The missing consumer advisory matters most for the restaurant's most vulnerable customers. An Vi serves Vietnamese food and Cajun crawfish, a menu that likely includes raw or undercooked preparations. Without a posted advisory, elderly diners, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems have no way of knowing which items carry elevated risk.
The reuse of single-use items, cited as an intermediate violation, adds another contamination layer. Items designed for one use, including disposable gloves, cups, and foil, are not constructed to withstand cleaning. Reusing them transfers whatever contaminated them the first time.
The Longer Record
September 17 was not an anomaly. The inspection history for An Vi stretches back across 20 recorded visits, with a cumulative total of 189 violations on file.
The pattern that emerges from the most recent inspections is consistent and worsening. The March 2026 inspection produced 7 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. The September 2025 inspection produced 6 high and 5 intermediate. The April 2025 inspection produced 6 high and 6 intermediate. The December 2024 inspection produced 3 high and 4 intermediate. Going back further, the mid-2024 inspections showed lower numbers, ranging from 1 to 2 high-severity violations per visit.
That trajectory is a straight line upward. Four of the five most recent inspections have each produced 6 or more high-severity violations. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The specific violations have also repeated. Handwashing failures, food contact surface sanitation problems, and employee health policy gaps are not new discoveries at this address. They have appeared across multiple inspection cycles without apparent correction that held through the next visit.
Still Open
State rules give inspectors the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The threshold is high, and regulators make that call based on what they observe at the time of inspection.
On September 17, after documenting toxic chemicals stored near food, two separate handwashing violations, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and no employee health policy, inspectors did not close An Vi Vietnamese Food and Crawfish Cajun.
The restaurant remained open for business.
