ORLANDO, FL. A food worker at A&T Buffalo Wings on North Pinehills Road was observed using improper handwashing technique during a May 18 state inspection, one of eight high-severity violations documented that day at the Orlando restaurant. The facility was not closed.
State records show the inspection turned up violations across nearly every critical food safety category: employee illness reporting, shellfish traceability, food contact surface sanitation, cooking temperatures, consumer disclosures, and the storage of toxic chemicals near food.
The restaurant remained open after the inspection.
What Inspectors Found
The cooking temperature violation is among the most direct hazards documented. A restaurant that serves chicken wings and does not cook poultry to the required minimum temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit leaves Salmonella alive in the meat. That is not a paperwork problem.
Inspectors also found toxic chemicals stored improperly or without adequate labeling, near food. A mislabeled or misplaced chemical container in a working kitchen is a poisoning risk that can reach a customer's plate without anyone noticing until someone is already sick.
The shellfish traceability violation adds a separate layer of concern. Without proper shell stock identification records, there is no way to trace where oysters, clams, or mussels came from if customers become ill. That gap makes outbreak investigation nearly impossible after the fact.
Nine intermediate violations accompanied the eight high-severity findings. Those included improper sewage or wastewater disposal, inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, improperly reused single-use items, and premises not properly maintained. Inspectors also cited improper use of wiping cloths, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and improper sanitizing procedures.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms is the pairing that produces multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads almost entirely through infected food workers who continue working. Without a written policy requiring workers to report symptoms, and without workers who actually report them, there is no mechanism to remove a sick employee from the kitchen before customers are exposed.
The handwashing technique violation compounds that risk. An employee who attempts to wash their hands but does so incorrectly still transfers pathogens to every surface they touch afterward. At a restaurant where food contact surfaces were also cited as improperly cleaned and sanitized, those contaminated surfaces become a secondary transfer route to food.
The inadequate cooling equipment citation is not a minor maintenance note. Cold-holding equipment that cannot maintain required temperatures allows food to drift into the range where bacteria multiply rapidly. At A&T Buffalo Wings, that finding sits alongside a cooking temperature violation, meaning food may have entered the kitchen cold chain already compromised and left it undercooked.
The consumer advisory violation is specific to raw or undercooked menu items. Without that notice, elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems have no way of knowing they are ordering something that carries elevated risk.
The Longer Record
The May 18 inspection was not an isolated bad day. State records show A&T Buffalo Wings has been inspected 28 times, accumulating 278 total violations across that history.
The pattern in recent months is consistent. Inspectors found five high-severity violations on January 5, 2026, and five more on December 5, 2025. Four high-severity violations were documented on both March 7 and February 4 of 2025, and again on December 3, 2024. The only inspection in recent memory with zero high-severity violations was December 5, 2024, a single clean visit sandwiched between citations on either side.
A follow-up inspection the day after the May 18 visit, on May 19, found three high-severity violations and seven intermediate violations still present. The restaurant had not resolved the bulk of what inspectors documented.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. That fact stands alongside 278 cumulative violations and eight high-severity citations on a single day in May, including food not cooked to minimum temperature and toxic chemicals stored near food.
The Longer Record in Context
Twenty-eight inspections over the life of this facility represent a substantial regulatory contact history. The violations documented on May 18 are not the product of a first-time inspector catching a restaurant off-guard. They reflect categories, including employee illness reporting, handwashing, and cooking temperatures, that have appeared repeatedly across multiple inspection cycles.
A restaurant that has been inspected nearly three dozen times and has accumulated 278 violations has had consistent opportunity to address the conditions that produce those numbers. The May 18 inspection found eight high-severity violations. The May 19 follow-up found three more.
A&T Buffalo Wings on North Pinehills Road was open for business after both inspections.