LAKE MARY, FL. A food worker who never reported illness symptoms. Toxic chemicals stored improperly near food. No allergen awareness on record. On October 6, state inspectors walked into F&D Cantina at 1125 Colonial Townpark in Lake Mary and documented nine high-severity violations and five intermediate ones. The restaurant was not closed.
That number, nine high-severity violations in a single visit, places this inspection among the most serious findings a facility can accumulate without triggering an emergency shutdown. Inspectors cited failures spanning food safety fundamentals: improper handwashing technique, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting failure stands out. State rules require food workers to notify a manager if they are experiencing symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice. When that system breaks down, a sick employee can transmit pathogens like norovirus directly through food preparation before anyone realizes there is a problem.
The parasite destruction citation is equally direct. For certain fish and pork items, state code requires either freezing at specific temperatures for a set period or cooking to temperatures that kill parasites including Anisakis and Trichinella. Without documentation that those steps were taken, there is no way to confirm the food served was safe.
Two separate violations involved toxic chemicals: one for improper storage or labeling, and a second for improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances. That is not one careless placement of a cleaning bottle. That is a pattern of chemical handling that inspectors found serious enough to cite twice on the same visit.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no allergen awareness and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods creates compounding risk for specific customers. Food allergies affect an estimated 32 million Americans. When staff cannot demonstrate awareness of common allergens, a customer with a tree nut or shellfish allergy has no reliable way to assess whether a dish is safe. The missing consumer advisory compounds this: pregnant women, elderly diners, and people with compromised immune systems need that disclosure to make informed choices about raw or undercooked proteins.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep tables, are one of the most direct routes for bacterial transfer in a kitchen. A surface that contacts raw chicken and is not properly sanitized before being used for produce carries whatever pathogens were on the raw protein directly onto ready-to-eat food. The intermediate citation for multi-use utensils not properly cleaned adds to that picture.
The sewage and wastewater disposal violation carries its own category of risk. Raw sewage contains fecal bacteria including E. coli and hepatitis A. Improper disposal means those contaminants can spread through the facility, reaching surfaces and equipment that contact food.
No person in charge was present, or the person present was not performing managerial duties. That single condition, according to CDC data cited in the inspection record, correlates with three times as many critical violations. The rest of the October 6 list reflects what that absence can produce.
The Longer Record
This was not an anomaly. F&D Cantina has accumulated 218 total violations across 28 inspections on record. The October 6 visit was the second time in 18 months that inspectors documented exactly nine high-severity violations in a single visit. The prior nine-high inspection came on April 11, 2025.
The pattern across recent years shows a facility that cycles between moderate and severe findings without sustained improvement. The November 2024 inspection logged five high-severity violations. The February 2024 inspection logged five more. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
A follow-up inspection on October 14, eight days after the nine-violation visit, found only one high-severity violation remaining. That quick turnaround shows the problems can be corrected. It also shows they keep returning: the April 2025 nine-violation inspection was followed by a June 2025 visit with two high-severity citations, then a return to two high-severity violations in October 2025, then three in April 2026, then nine again in October 2026.
F&D Cantina at Colonial Townpark remained open on October 6, 2026, with nine high-severity violations documented and active.
