JACKSONVILLE, FL. Inspectors visiting Fogo de Chao Churrascaria at 4784 Town Center Pkwy on August 12, 2026, found that the Brazilian steakhouse was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means some of what customers ate that day had bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections entirely.
The restaurant was not closed.
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations and four intermediate violations during that visit. The findings ranged from employees not reporting illness symptoms to food not cooked to minimum required temperatures. Together, they paint a picture of a kitchen operating without the basic controls that prevent customers from getting sick.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source violation is notable at a restaurant whose brand is built on premium imported Brazilian beef. When food enters a kitchen from an unknown or unapproved supplier, there is no traceable chain of inspections if a customer becomes ill. The violation appeared alongside a citation for parasite destruction procedures not being followed, which means that whatever fish, pork, or other susceptible proteins were on the menu that day may not have been frozen or cooked to the temperatures required to kill Anisakis, tapeworm, or Trichinella.
Undercooking was also cited as a separate violation. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a churrascaria where meats rotate constantly on skewers and are served at varying doneness levels, a cooking temperature failure carries direct risk for every table in the dining room.
Inspectors also found that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, and that handwashing technique was improper. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where sick workers could handle food without disclosing their condition, and where whatever handwashing did occur was not done correctly. There was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised had no written notice that some items carry elevated risk.
The person in charge was not present or not performing required duties. That absence is where inspection records say the rest of the violations tend to follow.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved sourcing and parasite destruction failures is particularly serious at a meat-focused restaurant. Food from unapproved sources has not been inspected at the supplier level for pathogens like Listeria or Salmonella. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no supply chain to trace. At Fogo de Chao, that violation appeared on the same day inspectors found parasite control procedures were not being followed, which means some proteins served that day may have carried live parasites.
The illness reporting violation is what epidemiologists call an outbreak enabler. Norovirus, which spreads through food handled by symptomatic workers, can sicken dozens of people from a single shift. The violation does not mean a sick employee was confirmed working that day. It means the system that would catch one was not in place.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. At a churrascaria where the same serving tools cycle through dozens of table visits per hour, that is not a theoretical risk. The reuse of single-use items compounds the problem, creating additional cross-contamination pathways between customers.
The Longer Record
The August 12 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 26 total inspections on file for this location, with 215 total violations accumulated across that history.
The pattern in recent visits is consistent. On March 19, 2026, inspectors found seven high-severity and two intermediate violations. On January 28, 2026, they found six high-severity and three intermediate violations. On May 26, 2026, five high-severity and three intermediate violations. The August 12 visit, with seven high-severity citations, matches the worst single-day count in the recent record.
A follow-up inspection on August 17, 2026, found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That rapid swing from seven high-severity violations to a clean inspection five days later is itself part of the pattern: the location has cycled through serious violation counts and clean follow-ups repeatedly over the past year without the underlying problems disappearing.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history.
The Longer Record in Context
Fogo de Chao on Town Center Parkway has now been cited for seven high-severity violations twice in 2026, in March and again in August. Both times, the restaurant remained open during the inspection. Both times, a follow-up visit found the counts drop to zero or near zero. And both times, within weeks or months, serious violations reappeared.
The August 12 inspection found food from an unapproved source, parasites potentially alive in served proteins, food not cooked to temperature, employees not disclosing illness, and no manager present to catch any of it. The restaurant served customers through all of it.
