PONTE VEDRA, FL. A state inspector walked into Anejo Cocina Mexicana at 330 A1A North on April 22 and found that staff were not following parasite destruction procedures for fish on the menu, that no consumer advisory existed to warn diners about raw or undercooked items, and that food was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures. The restaurant was not closed.
Eight high-severity violations and four intermediate violations were documented that day. Under Florida law, emergency closure is not automatic at any violation count. The inspector left. The restaurant stayed open.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction citation is among the most direct food-safety failures an inspector can document at a restaurant that serves fish. Proper parasite destruction requires fish intended for raw or undercooked service to be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations before it reaches a plate. Without that step, parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm remain viable.
Compounding that finding was the citation for no consumer advisory on the menu. Customers ordering raw or undercooked items had no printed notice that those preparations carry elevated risk, which means anyone with a compromised immune system, anyone elderly, pregnant, or otherwise vulnerable, was making that choice without the information state code requires restaurants to provide.
Food not cooked to required minimum temperatures was also cited as high severity. Undercooking is among the most documented causes of foodborne illness in the country. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The inspection record does not specify which items were affected.
The shellfish citation added another layer. Records required to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest source were inadequate. If a customer becomes ill after eating shellfish, those records are how investigators identify the harvest bed. Without them, traceability breaks down.
No person in charge was present or performing duties at the time of inspection. Inspectors and CDC data both connect the absence of active managerial oversight to higher rates of critical violations across a facility.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is the violation that most directly affects anyone who ate at Anejo on or around April 22. Food workers who do not report symptoms of illness, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice, are the primary driver of multi-victim norovirus and hepatitis A outbreaks. The transmission route is direct: an ill employee handles food, a customer eats it.
The improper handwashing technique citation makes that risk worse, not better. An employee who attempts to wash hands but uses incorrect technique, insufficient time, inadequate soap coverage, or improper drying, leaves pathogens on their hands. Studies show that improper technique can leave contamination levels comparable to no handwashing at all.
The sewage citation, classified as intermediate, is not a minor housekeeping note. Improper sewage or wastewater disposal creates the possibility of fecal contamination spreading through the facility, including onto food contact surfaces. Those surfaces were separately cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Single-use items improperly reused rounds out a picture of a facility where multiple contamination pathways were active simultaneously on the same day.
The Longer Record
The April 22 inspection was the 34th on record for this location. Across those 34 inspections, state records show 301 total violations. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity citations is not new. In November 2025, five months before this inspection, inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate violations at the same address. That was the highest single-visit count in the recent record until April 2026 matched it at 8 high-severity.
December 2024 produced 8 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations. February 2026 produced a cluster of three inspections across three consecutive days, with 7 high-severity violations on February 26 alone.
The April 2024 inspection showed zero violations in either category. That visit stands as the outlier in a record otherwise defined by recurring high-severity findings. The citations for inadequate shellfish records and parasite destruction procedures are not the kind of violations that appear by accident. They reflect operating decisions about sourcing documentation and food handling protocols.
Still Open
State inspectors left Anejo Cocina Mexicana open on April 22. A restaurant with eight high-severity violations, including failures in illness reporting, parasite destruction, cooking temperatures, and shellfish traceability, continued serving customers in Ponte Vedra that evening.
The inspection record shows 301 violations across 34 visits and no emergency closure in the facility's history.
That record is still accumulating.