FT. PIERCE, FL. Inspectors who walked into Frank & Al's Pizza II on US Highway 1 on July 31 documented food being served from unapproved or unknown sources, a finding that means customers had no way of knowing whether what they were eating had ever passed a federal safety inspection.
That was one of ten high-severity violations recorded that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source citation alone covers the entire supply chain. Food that bypasses USDA or FDA inspection has no verified handling history, no traceability if a customer gets sick, and no confirmed screening for Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli.
Alongside that, inspectors cited the restaurant for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures. For fish and certain meats, proper freezing or cooking temperatures are the only reliable way to kill parasites including Anisakis and Trichinella. Neither step was confirmed as completed.
Food was also found not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Undercooked poultry can harbor live Salmonella. Undercooked ground beef can carry E. coli O157:H7. These are not marginal risks.
The inspector also found that no person in charge was present or performing duties, that employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and that handwashing technique was improper. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near the food operation. Food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized. Time was not being used correctly as a public health control, meaning food sat in the bacterial growth zone longer than the rules allow without temperature monitoring as a backup.
Four intermediate violations accompanied the ten high-severity citations: improper sewage or wastewater disposal, inadequate ventilation and lighting, improper use of wiping cloths, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved food sourcing and failed parasite destruction is not a paperwork problem. When food enters a kitchen from an unknown or unverified supplier, there is no chain of custody, no recall notification pathway, and no documentation that it was handled safely before it arrived. If a customer gets sick, investigators have nowhere to start.
The illness-reporting failure compounds that risk directly. Food workers who do not report symptoms of norovirus, hepatitis A, or Salmonella infection are the single most common source of multi-victim outbreaks, according to CDC data. At Frank & Al's Pizza II on July 31, that reporting system was not functioning.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, including cutting boards, prep tables, and slicers, transfer bacteria from one food to the next. Combined with food not reaching minimum cooking temperatures, that creates a direct pathway from contaminated surface to undercooked protein to a customer's plate.
The toxic chemical storage violation adds a separate category of risk entirely. Chemicals stored or labeled improperly near food can contaminate ingredients through spills, vapor, or mislabeling, causing acute poisoning that has nothing to do with bacteria or parasites.
The Longer Record
Frank & Al's Pizza II: Recent Inspection History
The July 31 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 32 inspections on file for Frank & Al's Pizza II, with 272 total violations documented across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Of the eight most recent inspections with recorded results, six produced high-severity violations. The two inspections that came back clean, in February and November of 2025, were sandwiched between visits that found serious problems. The pattern is not improvement followed by backsliding. It is recurring high-severity citations with occasional clean visits in between.
The February 2024 inspection found seven high-severity violations. The January 2025 inspection found five. The July 2026 inspection found ten, the highest single-visit total in the recent record.
No prior inspection resulted in an emergency closure. After the July 31 visit, that remained true.
Still Open
Florida law gives inspectors discretion to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Ten high-severity violations at a single inspection, including unapproved food sourcing, failed parasite controls, undercooked food, and sick employees not reporting illness, did not meet that threshold on July 31.
Frank & Al's Pizza II on US Highway 1 in Ft. Pierce was open for business when inspectors left.
