HOLLYWOOD, FL. Inspectors who walked into DiSalvo's Pizza on N 46th Avenue on August 6 found food sourced from suppliers that have never been reviewed by state or federal safety authorities, toxic substances stored or used improperly, and no written employee health policy in place. They documented eight high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. The restaurant was not closed.
The finding about unapproved food sourcing may be the most consequential single item on the inspection report. When a restaurant cannot document where its food comes from, there is no chain of custody. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no supplier records to trace. That is not a paperwork problem. It is a barrier to identifying an outbreak.
What Inspectors Found
The toxic substance violation stands alongside the sourcing problem as an immediate physical hazard. Cleaning chemicals and pesticides stored near or above food preparation areas can contaminate surfaces and food directly. The inspection report does not specify which substances were involved or where they were found, but the violation category covers improper labeling, improper storage, and improper use.
Inspectors also cited inadequate shell stock identification records. DiSalvo's is a pizza restaurant, but if it serves shellfish, oysters, clams, or mussels, those products carry a distinct traceability requirement under state law. Shellfish are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without harvest tags and supplier records on file, there is no way to link a sick customer back to a specific harvest area or date.
Food contact surfaces, meaning cutting boards, prep tables, slicers, and any surface that touches food directly, were cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized. That violation, combined with improper handwashing technique documented in the same inspection, creates compounding risk. Pathogens transferred by hands can survive on surfaces and transfer again to the next item prepared there.
The inspector also noted the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Florida requires restaurants that serve items like rare beef, raw shellfish, or undercooked eggs to post a written notice so customers can make an informed choice. Elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system face substantially higher risk from undercooked proteins.
What These Violations Mean
The absence of an employee health policy is not a technicality. Without a written policy that requires sick workers to report symptoms and stay home, there is no formal mechanism to keep an employee with Norovirus or Salmonella away from food preparation. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and a single infected food handler can expose dozens of customers in a single shift.
The person-in-charge violation compounds every other finding on the report. CDC research has found that restaurants without active managerial oversight accumulate critical violations at roughly three times the rate of those with engaged supervision. When no one in authority is monitoring handwashing, storage practices, and cleaning protocols, the other seven high-severity violations on this list become easier to understand.
Improper sewage or wastewater disposal, one of the four intermediate violations, carries a specific risk that goes beyond odor or aesthetics. Raw sewage contains fecal bacteria including E. coli and Salmonella. If drainage is backing up into a prep area or a floor drain is not functioning correctly, that contamination can reach food surfaces, equipment, and employee hands.
Improperly used wiping cloths, another intermediate violation, are among the most common contamination vehicles in commercial kitchens. A cloth used to wipe a raw meat surface and then used on a prep table or a customer's plate moves pathogens directly. The violation suggests the facility lacked either the supplies or the protocols to keep cloths sanitized between uses.
The Longer Record
The August 6 inspection is not an isolated event. State records show DiSalvo's has been inspected 35 times and has accumulated 344 total violations over its history. The most recent seven inspections before August 6 each produced high-severity violations, with counts of six, one, seven, four, six, five, and eleven across visits stretching back to 2024.
The August 2024 inspection produced eleven high-severity violations, the single highest count in the recent record. The following visit in October 2024 produced zero high-severity violations, suggesting a correction was made. But by February 2025, high-severity violations had returned, and they have appeared in every inspection since.
The facility was emergency-closed once before, in May 2015, after inspectors documented roach activity. It reopened the following day. That closure is now more than a decade in the past, but the pattern of high-severity violations in recent years, eight or more in multiple visits, suggests the underlying compliance culture has not stabilized.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Eight high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, toxic substances stored improperly, and no employee health policy, were not enough to meet that threshold on August 6.
DiSalvo's Pizza on N 46th Avenue in Hollywood remained open after the inspection.
