WINDERMERE, FL. Workers at a Windermere Italian restaurant were not reporting illness symptoms to management, the restaurant had no written employee health policy, and inspectors documented improper handwashing technique during a May 19 visit. The state did not close Bella Tuscany Ristorante Italiano at 13424 Summerport Village Pkwy.
Six of the eight violations logged that day were classified as high severity. Two more were intermediate. The restaurant remained open throughout.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-related violations form the most direct threat to diners. Inspectors found no written employee health policy and documented that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Together, those two findings describe a kitchen where a worker sick with Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A had no formal obligation to stay home and no established procedure requiring them to disclose symptoms.
The handwashing violation compounds that risk. Improper handwashing technique leaves pathogens on hands even when a worker makes an attempt to wash. A worker who is ill, who has no policy requiring disclosure, and who is not washing hands correctly represents a direct transmission route to every plate leaving the kitchen.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for inadequate shell stock identification and records. Bella Tuscany serves shellfish, which can be consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without proper tagging and documentation, there is no way to trace which harvest lot a shellfish came from if a customer becomes sick. The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning diners with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, the elderly, and young children had no written warning that certain menu items carry elevated risk.
The person in charge was either not present or not performing required supervisory duties. That finding sat at the top of an inspection that documented failures across food safety fundamentals.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no health policy and no illness reporting is not a paperwork problem. CDC data cited in the inspection record links establishments without active managerial control to three times the number of critical violations. A written health policy exists specifically to create a documented expectation: sick workers stay home. Without it, there is no standard to enforce and no record that the standard was ever communicated.
Norovirus is the violation's backdrop. It causes an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States annually, and food workers are among the most common transmission sources. The illness spreads easily, and a single infected employee handling food without reporting symptoms can expose dozens of customers in a single shift.
The shellfish traceability violation carries a separate but equally serious risk. Shellfish harvested from contaminated waters can carry Vibrio bacteria or Norovirus. The tagging and record system exists so that, if customers fall ill after eating oysters or clams, public health investigators can identify the harvest location and pull the product. Without those records, an outbreak investigation hits a wall.
The consumer advisory violation means customers ordering raw or undercooked items at Bella Tuscany had no posted notice of that risk. For most healthy adults, the risk is manageable. For a pregnant diner or an immunocompromised one, it is not.
The Longer Record
The May 19 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Bella Tuscany has been inspected 37 times with 285 total violations on record. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent across recent years. In October 2023, inspectors logged 9 high-severity violations in a single visit. In April 2025, the count was 8 high-severity violations. The December 2024 and June 2024 inspections each produced 6 high-severity violations, the same count as May 2026. The January 2026 inspection, just four months before this one, yielded 4 high-severity violations.
One inspection in December 2024 showed zero high-severity violations. That result sits between two inspections that each produced 6. It suggests the restaurant can meet standards when it chooses to, which makes the surrounding record harder to explain away as a series of isolated mistakes.
The illness-related findings on May 19 are particularly notable in context. A restaurant with 37 inspections and 285 cumulative violations still had no written employee health policy and still had workers who were not reporting illness symptoms. Those are not conditions that develop overnight.
Still Open
Florida law allows inspectors to close a restaurant on the spot when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. An emergency closure requires findings that meet a specific threshold: operating without potable water, sewage backup, pest infestation, or other imminent hazards.
Six high-severity violations, including no illness reporting, no health policy, improper handwashing, and missing shellfish records, did not meet that threshold on May 19.
Bella Tuscany remained open for dinner service.