ORLANDO, FL. When state inspectors visited Fu Hua Chinese Restaurant on South Goldenrod Road on September 3, they found employees not reporting symptoms of illness and toxic chemicals improperly stored near food, two of nine high-severity violations documented that afternoon. The restaurant was not closed.
The nine high-severity citations placed Fu Hua among the most serious inspection outcomes in Orange County for the period. State records show the restaurant also drew four intermediate violations on the same visit, bringing the total to thirteen citations in a single inspection.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-related violations were among the most direct threats to customers. Inspectors cited the restaurant for failing to have an employee health policy, for employees not reporting symptoms of illness, and for improper handwashing technique, three separate breakdowns in the chain that is supposed to stop a sick worker from passing a pathogen to a plate.
The toxic chemicals citation added a separate category of risk. Inspectors noted chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food, a condition that can cause acute poisoning if a mislabeled container is mistaken for a food-safe product.
No person in charge was present or performing duties at the time of the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The cluster of illness-related violations at Fu Hua represents the most direct route from a sick employee to a sick customer. When a restaurant has no written health policy and employees are not required to report symptoms, a worker with Norovirus or Salmonella has no institutional reason to stay home. Norovirus alone accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food service workers are among its most efficient vectors. Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk: a worker who attempts to wash their hands but does so incorrectly still transfers pathogens to every surface they touch afterward.
The food contact surface violation means that cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils used to prepare food were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Bacteria transferred from raw proteins to those surfaces can survive and migrate to the next item prepared on them.
The allergen awareness citation is a separate category of danger. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and a kitchen without demonstrated allergen awareness cannot reliably warn a customer with a peanut or shellfish allergy that their dish is safe. That gap causes roughly 30,000 emergency room visits annually.
Improper sewage disposal, one of the four intermediate violations, introduces the possibility of fecal contamination spreading through a facility. Combined with inadequate toilet facilities, which inspectors also cited, the conditions create a hygiene infrastructure that discourages proper handwashing by employees before they return to food preparation.
The Longer Record
Fu Hua Chinese Restaurant: Recent Inspection History
The September 3 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Fu Hua has accumulated 460 total violations across 32 inspections on record, and every inspection in the past three-plus years has produced at least five high-severity citations.
Inspectors returned on consecutive days in March 2025, finding eight high-severity violations on March 26 and seven more on March 27. That back-to-back pattern suggests the problems documented on the first visit were not resolved before inspectors came back the following morning.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. Every visit in the available record has ended with the facility remaining open, including the nine-violation inspection on September 3, 2026.
Fu Hua Chinese Restaurant on South Goldenrod Road was open for business the day state inspectors documented that a sick employee had no policy requiring them to report their illness, that toxic chemicals sat improperly near food, and that no one in charge was present to correct either problem.
