ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL. Inspectors visiting Fuji Sushi Japanese Cuisine at 249 W State Road 436 on September 24, 2026 found that the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, a violation that means no one can trace where that food came from if a customer gets sick.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented in a single inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation stands apart from the others. At a sushi restaurant, where raw fish is the centerpiece of the menu, knowing exactly where seafood originates is not a formality. It is the mechanism that allows public health officials to identify a contamination source if customers start getting sick.
Inspectors also found that an employee was not reporting illness symptoms, a direct pathway for norovirus and other foodborne pathogens to move from a kitchen worker to a plate. At a restaurant serving raw fish to customers, that combination, unknown food origins and a potentially ill employee, is not a theoretical risk.
The remaining high-severity violations compounded the picture. Improper handwashing technique was cited, meaning employees may have attempted to wash their hands and still left pathogens behind. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, creating a cross-contamination pathway between whatever was prepared before and whatever came next. Toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used, a violation that carries immediate chemical contamination risk.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Florida law requires sushi restaurants to post that notice so that elderly customers, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system can make an informed choice before ordering raw fish.
The one intermediate violation involved multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, a condition that allows bacterial biofilms to develop on surfaces that touch food repeatedly throughout a shift.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is the violation that most directly limits the ability to respond to an outbreak. When a customer gets sick after eating raw fish, investigators trace the illness back through the supply chain: the restaurant, the distributor, the processor, the harvest location. That chain only works if the restaurant can document where the food came from. When it cannot, the investigation stops at the kitchen door.
The employee illness reporting failure is a separate and acute danger. Norovirus is shed in staggering quantities by infected individuals, and a single food handler who does not report symptoms can expose dozens of customers in a single shift. At Fuji Sushi, that risk existed alongside improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and utensils, meaning any pathogen present had multiple transfer routes to the food being served.
The missing consumer advisory matters most for the customers least able to absorb the risk. Raw fish carries a baseline exposure to Listeria, Salmonella, and parasites that a healthy adult may survive without hospitalization. For a pregnant woman, an elderly diner, or someone on immunosuppressant medication, the same exposure can be fatal. The advisory is the only warning they get.
Improperly stored or identified toxic substances add a different category of risk entirely. Chemical contamination of food does not produce symptoms that take days to appear. It can produce them within minutes.
The Longer Record
The September 24 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Fuji Sushi has been inspected 29 times and has accumulated 214 total violations across that history.
The pattern in recent inspections is consistent. On April 1, 2026, inspectors cited seven high-severity violations. On June 2, 2026, they cited six high-severity violations, the same count as September. On August 13, 2025, five high-severity violations were documented. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
A follow-up inspection on October 2, 2026, eight days after the September visit, found two high-severity violations still present. That inspection came after the six-violation report had already been filed.
The one inspection in the recent record that showed no high-severity or intermediate violations was August 29, 2024. Every inspection before and after that date has included high-severity citations.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Fuji Sushi on September 24, 2026, including food from an unknown source, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, and improperly stored toxic substances.
The restaurant was not closed.
A follow-up inspection eight days later found the facility still carrying two high-severity violations.
Fuji Sushi remains open for business.
