ORLANDO, FL. Inspectors visiting the Citrus Club at 255 S. Orange Ave. on September 22, 2026 found that the kitchen had no documented procedures to destroy parasites in fish, pork, and other proteins — meaning customers who ordered dishes with raw or undercooked ingredients could have been exposed to Anisakis, tapeworm, or Trichinella without any of the safeguards state food code requires.
That was one of ten high-severity violations documented in a single inspection. The club remained open.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction failure was not the only violation tied directly to what was on the plate. Inspectors also found no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, elderly diners, and young children had no way of knowing which menu items carried elevated risk.
Shellfish records were also inadequate. Without proper shell stock identification tags, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest source if a customer becomes ill.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. That violation sits alongside the food, the prep surfaces, and the people handling both.
The person in charge was either not present or not performing required supervisory duties. That single fact helps explain the rest of the list.
What These Violations Mean
The cluster of illness-related violations at the Citrus Club on September 22 represents a specific and compounding danger. The facility had no written employee health policy and inspectors documented that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where a worker showing signs of Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A had no formal obligation to stay home and no system requiring them to report their condition. Norovirus alone accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are its most common transmission route.
The handwashing violation adds another layer. Improper technique means pathogens remain on hands even when a worker goes through the motions of washing. Combined with no illness reporting requirement, that is a direct pathway from a sick employee to a customer's meal.
The parasite destruction failure is distinct but equally serious. State code requires that fish served raw or undercooked be frozen to specific temperatures for specific time periods before service, killing parasites that survive light cooking. Without documented procedures confirming that process happened, there is no way to know whether it did.
The time-as-public-health-control violation means food was held in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, without the tracking required to ensure it was discarded before bacterial growth reached unsafe levels. That violation, combined with the specialized process failure, suggests multiple points in the kitchen where the margin between safe and unsafe food was not being actively managed.
The Longer Record
The September 22 inspection was not an anomaly. It was the latest entry in a record that now spans 30 inspections and 285 total violations.
Citrus Club: Recent Inspection History
Every one of the eight most recent inspections on record produced high-severity violations. The counts have not trended downward. The February 2026 inspection found 7 high-severity violations. The two inspections in September 2025, conducted four days apart, produced 8 and 5 high-severity violations respectively. The two inspections in August 2024, conducted on consecutive days, each produced 8 and 6 high-severity violations.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its 30 inspections on record.
On September 22, 2026, with ten high-severity violations documented and the person in charge either absent or not doing the job, the Citrus Club continued serving customers.
