DELAND, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into the Captain D's at 1333 S Woodland Blvd and documented something that belongs at the top of any food safety concern list: food not cooked to the required minimum temperature at a restaurant that serves seafood and poultry.
That single violation, logged on April 7, means customers may have eaten chicken or fish that never reached the internal temperature required to kill Salmonella. At a seafood chain, that is not a paperwork problem.
It was one of seven high-severity violations cited that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The April 7 inspection produced ten total violations, seven of them high-severity. Beyond the cooking temperature failure, inspectors cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and for using improper handwashing technique.
Those two violations together describe a specific, compounding danger. An employee who is sick and does not report it is already a transmission risk. If that same employee then washes hands incorrectly, the contamination barrier that handwashing is supposed to provide does not exist.
Inspectors also found food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards and prep surfaces that carry bacteria from one food item to the next are one of the most common vehicles for cross-contamination in a commercial kitchen.
The citation for time as a public health control not properly used means food was sitting in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, without the tracking required to ensure it was discarded before becoming unsafe. The citation for no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods means customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised had no way of knowing they needed to ask questions before ordering.
Rounding out the seven high-severity violations: toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled somewhere in the facility.
On the intermediate side, inspectors cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature violation is the most direct line between what happened in that kitchen and what could happen to a customer. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a restaurant built around fried fish and chicken, a failure to reach required internal temperatures is not an edge case. It is the core of the operation failing.
The illness reporting violation is what epidemiologists call an outbreak enabler. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness, spreads through food handlers who work while symptomatic. When employees are not required or trained to report symptoms, a single sick worker can expose dozens of customers before anyone notices.
The combination of improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and improperly cleaned multi-use utensils means bacteria had multiple pathways to move from one food item to another, and from surfaces to food. Bacterial biofilms can develop on inadequately cleaned utensils within 24 hours, and those biofilms resist standard cleaning once established.
The sewage and wastewater disposal violation adds a separate layer of concern. Improper sewage handling inside a food facility creates the possibility of fecal contamination reaching food preparation areas, a risk that compounds every other violation on the list.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection did not arrive without warning. State records show this location has been inspected 28 times and has accumulated 213 total violations across its history. It has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in recent years is consistent. In July 2024, inspectors cited six high-severity and four intermediate violations. That was followed by another visit three days later with one high and one intermediate. In January 2025, four high-severity violations. In March 2025, three high-severity and three intermediate. In May 2025, four high-severity. In July 2025, five high-severity and three intermediate violations.
The September 2025 inspection produced zero high-severity violations and one intermediate, a rare clean result in this location's recent history. Four months later, in April 2026, the facility logged its worst single-inspection total in the period on record: seven high-severity violations.
The violations that recur across multiple inspections, food handling failures, temperature and time control issues, and sanitation lapses, suggest these are not isolated incidents being corrected and resolved. They are categories that keep reappearing.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at this DeLand Captain D's on April 7, 2026. The violations included undercooking food, employees not reporting illness, improper handwashing, unsanitized food contact surfaces, chemical storage failures, and improper sewage disposal.
The restaurant was not ordered to close.