HOMESTEAD, FL. A Homestead sushi and pho restaurant was cited for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures for raw fish on August 21, a violation that means customers eating sushi or lightly cooked seafood had no assurance the fish had been frozen to the temperatures required to kill Anisakis and tapeworm larvae. The restaurant stayed open.
Five Spice Vietnamese Pho and Sushi Bar at 1801 NE 8th Street drew 11 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations in that single inspection, one of the heaviest single-day tallies the restaurant has produced in a record that now spans 31 inspections and 348 total violations.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction failure sits at the top of that list for a reason. A sushi bar that cannot document that its fish was frozen to kill parasites is serving customers raw seafood with an unknown biological load. There is no visible sign, no smell, and no symptom until days later.
Compounding that, inspectors cited the restaurant for having no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Pregnant women, elderly customers, and anyone with a compromised immune system eating there that day had no warning on the menu that what they ordered carried elevated risk.
Inspectors also found that food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature and that time was not being properly used as a public health control, meaning food was sitting in the bacterial growth range of 41 to 135 degrees without either temperature monitoring or a documented time limit to prevent pathogen multiplication.
The shellfish traceability violation adds another layer. Without proper shell stock identification tags, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest source if a customer gets sick.
Two handwashing violations, one for inadequate handwashing and one for improper technique, were cited simultaneously. Employees were not only failing to wash hands often enough but were also washing them incorrectly when they did.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction failure is not a paperwork problem. Anisakis, a parasitic roundworm found in raw or undercooked fish, causes severe abdominal pain and can require surgical removal if it embeds in the stomach lining. The required control is freezing fish at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit for seven days, or minus 31 degrees for 15 hours. When a sushi restaurant cannot document that process, there is no confirmed barrier between the parasite and the customer.
The illness reporting failure is a different kind of danger. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks, spreads directly from an infected food handler to every dish they touch. A single sick employee who does not report symptoms and continues preparing food can infect dozens of customers before anyone connects the cases.
The management absence violation ties the others together. State data shows establishments without active managerial control on the floor produce three times as many critical violations as those with engaged supervision. When no one in charge is watching, handwashing lapses, temperature logs go unrecorded, and sick employees keep working.
The toxic substance violation rounds out a picture of systemic disorder. Cleaning chemicals stored or used improperly near food preparation surfaces can contaminate food directly, with no cooking step to neutralize the exposure.
The Longer Record
Five Spice Inspection History, Selected Visits
The August 21 inspection was not an outlier. It was the second-worst single-day inspection Five Spice has produced in the past year, behind only the March 2026 visit that generated 13 high-severity violations. In the eight most recent inspections on record, the restaurant has never once come in with zero high-severity violations.
The follow-up inspection conducted the next day, August 22, showed the restaurant had cleared some violations but still carried 5 high-severity and 3 intermediate citations. That means five high-priority food safety failures remained active the day after a 15-violation inspection.
Across 31 total inspections, Five Spice has accumulated 348 violations. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
It was open on August 21, and it remained open on August 22.
