ORLANDO, FL. A food worker at Blended Bistro & Boba on Edgewater Drive was observed not reporting symptoms of illness during a July 29 inspection that turned up eight high-severity violations, and the restaurant was not closed.
State inspectors documented the violations at the 2306 Edgewater Drive location in Orange County. The findings covered nearly every layer of food safety: where the food came from, how surfaces were cleaned, how employees washed their hands, and whether customers with allergies or compromised immune systems had any protection at all.
What Inspectors Found
The illness reporting violation sits at the center of the inspection report. A food worker who is symptomatic and not reporting it is the most direct route from a sick employee to a sick customer, and state records show there was no written employee health policy in place to require reporting in the first place.
Inspectors also flagged food from an unapproved or unknown source. That means at least some of what was served that day could not be traced back to a USDA or FDA-inspected supplier. If someone got sick, there would be no clear chain of custody to follow.
Toxic chemicals were documented as improperly stored or labeled near food. That violation, alongside food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized and improper sanitizing procedures, describes a facility where contamination had multiple entry points on the same day.
Staff demonstrated no allergen awareness. No consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked foods. And the handwashing technique observed by inspectors was flagged as improper, meaning pathogens could remain on hands even after an employee made an attempt to wash them.
The two intermediate violations added sewage disposal and sanitizer concentration problems to the list.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and an employee not reporting illness is not a paperwork problem. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads directly from infected food workers to customers through contaminated food and surfaces. A single symptomatic worker without a reporting requirement in place can expose dozens of diners in a single shift.
The food sourcing violation carries a different kind of danger. Approved suppliers are required to meet USDA and FDA inspection standards, which screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens. Food from an unknown or unapproved source at Blended Bistro & Boba skipped that screening entirely. If a customer became ill after eating there on July 29, investigators would have no verified supplier record to trace.
The allergen awareness finding is one that affects a specific and vulnerable population. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A staff that cannot identify allergens in its own menu items gives customers with serious allergies no reliable protection.
Improper sewage disposal, the first intermediate violation, creates the risk of fecal contamination spreading through the facility. Combined with sanitizer that was either too weak or too strong, surfaces that appeared clean may have still carried live bacteria.
The Longer Record
The July 29 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Blended Bistro & Boba has been inspected 25 times and has accumulated 265 total violations over its history.
The pattern is consistent. In February 2026, inspectors cited five high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. In August 2025, the location was inspected on three consecutive days, August 6, 7, and 8, each visit turning up five high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. In January 2025, five high and two intermediate. In July 2024, five high and three intermediate. In February 2024, eight high-severity violations and four intermediate ones, matching the severity of the July 29 inspection almost exactly.
Blended Bistro & Boba: Inspection History
The location has never been emergency-closed. Despite the repeated high-severity findings across multiple years, including categories that overlap with this week's inspection, the facility has continued to operate each time.
A follow-up inspection two days later, on July 31, found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. The restaurant was open throughout.
