ORLANDO, FL. On September 18, 2026, a state inspector walked into Charley's Philly Steaks on North Alafaya Trail and found employees failing to report symptoms of illness, a violation that public health officials consistently identify as the single most direct path from a sick worker to a sick customer.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting failure was not the only handwashing problem documented. The inspector cited employees for inadequate handwashing and, separately, for improper hand and arm washing technique. That distinction matters: the first violation means workers were not washing their hands when they should have been; the second means that even when they did wash, they were doing it wrong.
Two separate handwashing citations in a single inspection, at a restaurant serving food from surfaces the same inspector found were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled, a violation that creates acute poisoning risk when containers are misidentified or placed near food. The inspector also cited the location for improper sewage or wastewater disposal, meaning the facility had a documented path for fecal contamination to spread through the space. No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting violation is the one public health officials most closely associate with multi-victim outbreaks. When a food worker with norovirus or salmonella continues to handle food because there is no system requiring them to disclose symptoms, every item they touch becomes a potential vehicle for transmission. The customers who ate at the Alafaya Trail location on or around September 18 had no way of knowing whether anyone preparing their food was sick.
The two handwashing violations compound that risk directly. Hands are the most common route for pathogens to travel from a contaminated surface, or a sick person, to a meal. Citing a facility for both failing to wash and washing incorrectly means the inspector observed a breakdown at every point in the handwashing process.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the fifth high-severity citation, close that loop. Bacterial biofilms can develop on cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning. Those surfaces then recontaminate food that is otherwise safely prepared. At Charley's on Alafaya Trail, the surfaces where food was being made were flagged as unclean on the same day workers were flagged for not washing their hands.
The toxic chemical storage violation adds a different category of risk. Chemicals stored near food, or in unlabeled containers, can cause acute poisoning that is often misattributed to foodborne illness because the symptoms overlap. The improper sewage disposal citation is its own concern: raw sewage carries pathogens that are highly resistant to casual cleaning, and a facility with a sewage handling problem has a contamination source that handwashing alone cannot address.
The Longer Record
The September 18 inspection was not an aberration. State records show 27 inspections on file for the Alafaya Trail location, with 176 total violations documented across that history.
The pattern of high-severity citations runs consistently through the recent record. On July 20, 2026, just two months before the September inspection, the same location was cited for seven high-severity and four intermediate violations, the same high-severity count as the September visit. Before that, a January 2026 inspection produced four high-severity and four intermediate violations. The July 2025 and February 2025 inspections each produced three high-severity violations.
In the twelve days following the September 18 inspection, the location was inspected three more times. The September 21 visits produced three high-severity and two intermediate violations in one visit, and one high-severity and one intermediate in another. A September 30 visit found two high-severity and two intermediate violations.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on record.
Open for Business
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when violations pose an immediate threat to public health. On September 18, with seven high-severity citations documented including an illness-reporting failure, two separate handwashing breakdowns, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and improperly stored toxic chemicals, that threshold was not met.
Charley's Philly Steaks on North Alafaya Trail remained open.
