ORLANDO, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Cayjo at 6601 Old Winter Garden Road and left with 12 high-severity violations documented in a single visit, including inadequate shellfish traceability records, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and toxic chemicals improperly stored near food. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
That inspection, conducted April 2, 2026, also turned up seven intermediate violations, bringing the total to 19 documented problems in one day. Among the high-severity findings: no employee health policy, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items, no demonstrated allergen awareness, and required procedures for specialized food processes not followed.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish violation is worth pausing on. Inadequate shell stock identification records mean there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest source if a customer gets sick. Those records exist precisely because shellfish are consumed raw or barely cooked, and contaminated batches have caused Vibrio and norovirus outbreaks that health officials can only investigate when sourcing documentation exists.
The undercooking violation carries its own weight. Food not reaching required minimum internal temperatures is one of the most direct routes to Salmonella and Campylobacter poisoning. Salmonella survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit in poultry. The citation does not specify which item was undercooked, but the violation category is classified high-severity for a reason.
Two separate chemical violations were cited: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Both appeared in the same inspection. Chemicals stored near food preparation areas are an acute poisoning risk, not a paperwork problem.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and improper handwashing technique is particularly direct in its public health implication. Without a written health policy, there is no mechanism to keep a sick employee away from food. Without proper handwashing, even an employee who tries to wash their hands before service leaves pathogens behind. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads through exactly this route.
The allergen awareness citation is one the dining public rarely thinks about until it affects someone they know. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms annually. A kitchen that cannot demonstrate allergen awareness is a kitchen where a customer with a tree nut or shellfish allergy cannot trust the answer they get from their server.
The improper sewage and wastewater disposal citation, listed as intermediate, is not a minor plumbing complaint. Improper sewage handling in a food facility creates a pathway for fecal contamination to reach surfaces, utensils, and food. It was one of seven intermediate violations documented that day, alongside improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, reused single-use items, inadequate ventilation, improper waste disposal, misused wiping cloths, and inadequate toilet facilities.
Nineteen violations in a single inspection. The restaurant stayed open.
The Longer Record
The April 2, 2026 inspection did not happen in a vacuum. Cayjo has 46 inspections on record and 591 total violations documented across its history. That is not a facility catching a bad day. That is a facility with a documented pattern.
The inspection record from the months surrounding April 2026 makes the pattern visible. On January 7, 2026, inspectors cited nine high-severity and five intermediate violations. A follow-up on January 9 still found two high-severity and three intermediate violations. The April 2 inspection brought 12 high-severity violations. A follow-up on April 6 found 11 high-severity and seven intermediate violations still present, and another follow-up on April 13 still turned up six high-severity and four intermediate violations. As recently as June 4, 2026, a separate inspection again found six high-severity and four intermediate violations.
The facility was emergency-closed once before, in April 2016, after inspectors documented roach activity. It was allowed to reopen the following day.
The only inspection in the recent record that came back clean was October 31, 2025, when inspectors found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That inspection stands alone in a run of returns that consistently show elevated high-severity counts.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine an imminent threat to public health exists at the time of the inspection. The April 2, 2026 inspection at Cayjo produced 12 high-severity violations, including undercooking, chemical mishandling, missing shellfish records, and no allergen awareness training.
The state did not close it.
Customers who ate at Cayjo on April 2, 2026 had no way of knowing that the kitchen behind their meal had no documented employee health policy, that food contact surfaces had not been properly sanitized, and that inspectors had already cited the facility for nine high-severity violations just three months earlier.
The record is public. The restaurant was open.
