PONTE VEDRA, FL. Inspectors visiting Anejo Cocina Mexicana at 335 Pine Lake Drive on April 27 found that the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning the ingredients on customers' plates had bypassed the federal inspection system designed to catch Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before they reach a kitchen. The restaurant was not closed.
That single violation was one of eight high-severity citations inspectors documented that day, along with three intermediate violations. Eleven total violations in a single visit. The facility remained open to the public throughout.
What Inspectors Found
The food temperature violation is among the most direct threats to anyone who ate at Anejo that day. Inspectors cited the kitchen for failing to cook food to required minimum temperatures. For poultry, that threshold is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Salmonella survives below that mark and causes an estimated 1.35 million infections in the United States each year.
The kitchen was also cited for food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep tables, and other surfaces that touch raw ingredients and finished plates are a primary transfer route for bacterial contamination. An unsanitized surface does not look different from a clean one.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. Chemicals stored near food preparation areas can contaminate ingredients through mislabeling or accidental spills, with effects that range from gastrointestinal illness to acute poisoning.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items. That notice exists specifically to warn customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or otherwise at elevated risk that certain menu items carry inherent danger. Without it, those customers have no way to make an informed choice.
The Handwashing Problem
Two of the eight high-severity violations that day involved handwashing, and the distinction between them matters. One cited inadequate handwashing facilities, meaning the physical infrastructure to wash hands properly was not in place. The other cited improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands but doing it wrong.
Together, those two violations describe a kitchen where proper hand hygiene was not happening, and where the conditions to make it happen were not present. Norovirus, which causes approximately 20 million infections in the United States annually, spreads primarily through contaminated hands touching food.
There was also no employee health policy on record. Without a written policy, a sick employee has no formal obligation to report symptoms or stay off the line. That is the most direct route from a sick worker to a sick customer.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of food from unapproved sources and undercooking is particularly consequential. Unapproved-source food has not been inspected for Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli at any point in the supply chain. If that food then reaches a plate without being cooked to the temperature required to kill those pathogens, there is no safety net left.
The improperly cleaned multi-use utensils cited as an intermediate violation compound the picture. Bacterial biofilms develop on inadequately cleaned surfaces within 24 hours and are resistant to standard cleaning methods once established. That means contamination does not reset between service periods.
The reuse of single-use items, also cited as intermediate, introduces a separate contamination pathway. Items designed for a single use, whether gloves, cups, or foil, are not engineered to be sanitized. Reusing them transfers whatever contaminated them the first time.
Taken together, the April 27 inspection documented a kitchen with failures at nearly every control point: sourcing, cooking temperature, surface sanitation, hand hygiene infrastructure, hand hygiene practice, employee illness screening, chemical storage, and customer notification.
The Longer Record
The April 27 inspection was not the first time Anejo Cocina Mexicana accumulated serious violations in a single visit. State records show the restaurant has been inspected 20 times, accumulating 158 total violations across its history. It has never been emergency-closed.
The prior inspection on April 28, 2025, produced 12 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, a worse single-visit total than the current inspection. That visit was followed by a clean inspection on May 7, 2025, suggesting the restaurant corrected the cited problems. But the pattern did not hold.
By late October 2025, the violations had returned. An inspection on October 29 of that year found 10 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. Follow-up inspections on October 30, October 31, and November 3 each found 2 high-severity violations before a clean inspection on November 4 cleared the slate again.
The April 2025 spike, the October 2025 spike, and now the April 2026 spike describe a facility that corrects violations when pressed, then accumulates them again. The restaurant has now recorded high-severity violations in three separate inspection clusters across 13 months.
After the April 27, 2026 inspection, Anejo Cocina Mexicana remained open for business.