NORTH PORT, FL. An inspector visiting Go Go Pizza on Tamiami Trail in May found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, a violation that allows pathogens like Salmonella to survive in undercooked poultry and reach a customer's plate. The restaurant was not closed.
The May 21 inspection turned up six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. That combination, at a facility with 33 inspections on record and a prior emergency closure, raises questions the record alone cannot answer.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation was not the only item that placed customers at direct risk. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to properly use time as a public health control. When a facility chooses to track time rather than temperature for food safety, that system requires precise recordkeeping and strict adherence. At Go Go Pizza, that system was not working.
Food contact surfaces were found improperly cleaned and sanitized. Cutting boards, prep tables and similar surfaces that touch food directly are among the most reliable routes for bacterial cross-contamination when they are not properly treated between uses.
The illness violations compounded everything else. Inspectors found no adequate employee health policy and documented that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties. When no one is in charge and no policy exists requiring sick workers to stay home, the conditions for a multi-person outbreak exist simultaneously.
Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned, and single-use items were being reused. Toilet facilities were inadequate or improperly maintained, a finding that directly affects whether employees wash their hands after using the restroom.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooked food violation is not a paperwork problem. Salmonella survives in poultry cooked below 165 degrees Fahrenheit and can cause severe gastrointestinal illness. The food was served at Go Go Pizza on the day of this inspection.
The illness-reporting failures are, in some ways, more alarming. Norovirus is responsible for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States annually, and food workers are its most efficient transmission vehicle. Without a written health policy and without supervisory enforcement, a sick employee handling food has no institutional reason to stop. At Go Go Pizza, inspectors found both the policy and the enforcement absent on the same day.
The time-control violation adds a third layer. When a facility uses time rather than temperature to keep food safe, food is allowed to sit in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, for a defined and tracked window. If that tracking breaks down, the food can remain in the danger zone indefinitely without anyone knowing.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms are resistant to standard cleaning and can transfer bacteria to every item the utensil touches afterward. Reusing single-use items, items designed specifically to be discarded after one contact, compounds that risk.
The Longer Record
Go Go Pizza has 33 inspections on record and 268 total violations accumulated over its history. That is not the record of a restaurant encountering its first difficult stretch.
The pattern in recent inspections is hard to dismiss. In August 2024 alone, inspectors visited twice: the first visit on August 6 produced eight high-severity and four intermediate violations, and a follow-up on August 15 still showed five high-severity and four intermediate violations. February 2026 brought three high-severity violations just three months before this inspection.
The one clean inspection in the record, a June 2025 visit with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, stands out precisely because it is the exception. The surrounding inspections on either side of it show high-severity violations before and after.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, on December 29, 2022, for a sewage backup. It reopened the same day. That closure involved a different category of hazard, but it is part of the same facility history that now includes 268 cumulative violations.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Go Go Pizza on May 21, 2026, including food not cooked to required temperatures, no employee illness policy, no active person in charge, and improperly sanitized food contact surfaces.
The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
Customers who visited Go Go Pizza on Tamiami Trail on or after May 21 did so without any public notice that inspectors had found those conditions the same day.