RIVERVIEW, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into China Taste on US Highway 301 South and found toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, a condition that can cause acute poisoning through contamination or mislabeling. That was one of seven high-severity violations documented during the April 14 visit. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.

The full list of what inspectors found that day reads less like a routine compliance report and more like a catalog of the most direct ways a restaurant can make customers sick.

What Inspectors Found

1HIGHToxic chemicals improperly stored or labeledacute poisoning risk
2HIGHNo employee health policydisease transmission risk
3HIGHImproper handwashing techniquepathogen transfer risk
4HIGHFood contact surfaces not properly cleaned/sanitizedcross-contamination risk
5HIGHTime as public health control not properly usedtemperature abuse risk
6HIGHNo consumer advisory for raw/undercooked foodsvulnerable customer risk
7HIGHRequired procedures for specialized processes not followedprocess failure risk
8INTMulti-use utensils not properly cleanedbacterial biofilm risk

The restaurant had no written employee health policy, meaning there was no formal system in place to keep sick workers out of the kitchen. Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, a violation distinct from simply not washing hands. Workers were making an attempt but doing it wrong, leaving pathogens on their hands regardless.

Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a condition that turns cutting boards, prep tables, and counters into transfer points for bacteria between raw and ready-to-eat food. Multi-use utensils had the same problem, flagged as an intermediate violation.

The time-as-public-health-control violation means the restaurant was using time, rather than temperature, to keep certain foods safe, and not doing it correctly. When that system fails, food sits in the bacterial growth range, between 41 and 135 degrees, without any safeguard in place.

There was also no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. For elderly customers, pregnant women, young children, or anyone with a compromised immune system, that missing disclosure removes the one piece of information that could change their order. The specialized process violation compounds this: procedures for techniques that require precise controls, such as those involving reduced-oxygen packaging or similar methods, were not being followed.

What These Violations Mean

The absence of an employee health policy is not a paperwork issue. It is the mechanism by which Norovirus, one of the most contagious foodborne pathogens in circulation, moves from a sick kitchen worker to every plate that worker touches. China Taste had no formal system to prevent that on April 14.

The handwashing violation at China Taste is particularly significant in combination with the food contact surface violation. Hands that are not properly cleaned transfer bacteria to surfaces. Surfaces that are not properly sanitized transfer it back to the next batch of food. Those two violations together create a closed loop for contamination.

Improperly stored or mislabeled chemicals near food represent a different category of risk entirely. Unlike bacterial contamination, which causes illness over hours or days, chemical poisoning can be acute and immediate. A customer would have no way of knowing.

The consumer advisory failure matters most for people who are already vulnerable. Elderly diners, pregnant women, and immunocompromised customers rely on those disclosures to make informed decisions about raw or undercooked items. Without the advisory, that choice was taken from them on every visit.

The Longer Record

The April 2026 inspection did not represent a new low for China Taste. It was the continuation of a pattern that state records have been documenting for years.

China Taste: Recent Inspection History

April 14, 20267 high-severity violations, 1 intermediate. Restaurant remained open.
December 15, 20255 high, 1 intermediate violations.
December 10, 202510 high, 2 intermediate violations.
June 4, 20254 high, 1 intermediate violations.
February 24, 202511 high, 3 intermediate violations.
July 15, 20249 high, 3 intermediate violations over a three-day inspection sequence.
February 6, 2023Emergency closure for roach activity. Reopened February 9, 2023.

The restaurant has accumulated 376 total violations across 34 inspections on record. That is an average of more than 11 violations per inspection visit. In February 2025, a single inspection turned up 11 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate ones. In December 2025, two inspections five days apart found 10 high-severity violations and then 5 more.

The one emergency closure in the facility's history came in February 2023, when inspectors found roach activity significant enough to pull the restaurant from service. It reopened three days later. The high-severity violation counts in the months and years after that closure show no sustained period of improvement.

Every inspection in the past two years has included multiple high-severity violations. The categories shift slightly from visit to visit, but the volume does not.

Still Open

Seven high-severity violations were documented at China Taste on April 14, 2026. The restaurant was not emergency-closed. Under Florida's inspection framework, emergency closure is triggered by conditions that pose an immediate threat to public safety, and inspectors determined that threshold had not been met.

Customers who ate at the US Highway 301 South location that day, or in the days that followed before any corrections were verified, did so while the violations documented in the April 14 report remained on the record.