OVIEDO, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly near food at Backstreet Pizza and Pub on West County Road 419, state inspectors documented on July 9, one of six high-severity violations that left the Seminole County restaurant open and serving customers.
The inspection turned up a list that stretched from the kitchen to the bar to the bathrooms. Six high-priority violations and three intermediate citations were recorded in a single visit, yet the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation did not issue an emergency closure order.
What Inspectors Found
The two chemical violations are distinct citations, meaning inspectors flagged both the storage of toxic substances near food and a separate failure to properly identify or handle those substances. Either one alone can result in chemical contamination of food or drink without any visible sign that something is wrong.
Inspectors also found that the restaurant had no adequate shell stock identification records. Backstreet Pizza and Pub serves food from a kitchen that handles shellfish, and state law requires those records because oysters, clams, and mussels carry elevated risk of illness, particularly from Vibrio bacteria. Without the tags and logs, there is no way to trace the origin of shellfish if a customer gets sick.
Food contact surfaces were cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized. The same inspection found food described as in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. Both violations were recorded on the same visit.
The restaurant was also cited for posting no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. That notice is required specifically to warn pregnant women, elderly customers, and anyone with a compromised immune system that certain menu items carry elevated risk.
On the intermediate level, multi-use utensils were flagged as not properly cleaned. Ventilation and lighting were cited as inadequate. Toilet facilities were documented as inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The chemical storage violations are among the most acutely dangerous a restaurant can receive. Cleaning agents and sanitizers stored near or above food preparation surfaces can contaminate food through spills, aerosols, or mislabeled containers. Acute chemical poisoning does not require large quantities, and the symptoms can mimic foodborne illness closely enough that the source goes unidentified.
The shellfish traceability failure compounds the risk for anyone who ordered oysters, clams, or mussels. Shellfish are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and Vibrio bacteria, which thrive in warm Gulf Coast waters, can cause severe illness within 24 hours of consumption. The tags and records inspectors look for are the only mechanism that allows health officials to issue a targeted recall if a harvest area tests contaminated. Without those records at Backstreet Pizza and Pub, that chain of accountability is broken.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the third high-severity citation, are a direct route for bacterial transfer from one food item to another. Cutting boards and prep surfaces that carry residue from raw proteins can contaminate ready-to-eat foods prepared on the same surface hours later.
The missing consumer advisory matters most to the most vulnerable customers. A pregnant woman ordering a dish prepared with undercooked shellfish or meat has no way of knowing from the menu that the preparation carries elevated risk, because the restaurant did not post the notice the law requires.
The Longer Record
The July 9 inspection is not an outlier. State records show 29 inspections on file for Backstreet Pizza and Pub, with 212 total violations documented across that history.
The pattern of high-severity citations is consistent across years. In September 2025, inspectors recorded 7 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. In March 2025, the count reached 9 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, the worst single inspection in the recent record. April 2023 produced 10 high-severity violations in one visit.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed. In eight of the inspections listed in the most recent history, high-severity violations were present every single time. The July 2026 total of six high-severity citations falls in the middle of that range, not at the bottom.
The chemical storage violations documented this week did not appear to trigger a closure. Neither did the shellfish traceability failure, or the food condition citation, or the missing consumer advisory. All of those findings were recorded, the inspection report was filed, and Backstreet Pizza and Pub continued operating.
The Longer Record in Numbers
Two hundred and twelve violations over 29 inspections works out to more than seven violations per visit on average. The July 9 inspection produced nine. By the facility's own historical standard, this was not an unusual week.
The restaurant remained open after the inspection.
