OCOEE, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly near food, no written employee health policy existed, and the person responsible for overseeing safe food handling was either absent or not doing the job, according to a state inspection of Hai San Chinese Restaurant on West Colonial Drive conducted September 2, 2026. Inspectors documented seven high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violation is the most acute danger on the list. Cleaning agents and other toxic compounds stored near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, whether through spills, mislabeling, or a worker reaching for the wrong container. There is no margin for error with chemical contamination, because unlike bacterial illness, the harm can be immediate.
Equally serious: the restaurant had no written employee health policy and inspectors noted that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. These two violations function together. Without a formal policy, workers have no documented obligation to stay home when sick. Without reporting, a contagious employee handles food, touches surfaces, and serves customers with no mechanism to stop transmission.
Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. A worker who attempts to wash hands but uses incorrect technique leaves pathogens on skin. Those pathogens then transfer to every surface and food item the worker touches afterward.
The time-as-public-health-control violation is a technical but consequential one. When a restaurant uses time rather than temperature to keep food safe, it commits to a strict clock, removing food from service after a set window. The record shows that protocol was not being followed correctly, meaning food was allowed to sit in the temperature range where bacteria multiply most rapidly without the temperature monitoring that would otherwise serve as a check.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no illness policy, no symptom reporting, and improper handwashing at a single facility on a single inspection day describes a direct route for a foodborne illness outbreak. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million cases of illness in the United States each year, spreads primarily through infected food workers who continue handling food while contagious. A written health policy is the first line of defense against that. Hai San had none.
Improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep counters, are how bacteria move from raw proteins to ready-to-eat foods. A surface that looks clean is not necessarily sanitized. Without verified sanitization steps, cross-contamination between raw meat and vegetables or cooked dishes is not a hypothetical risk.
The absence of an engaged person in charge compounds every other violation on the list. CDC research shows that facilities without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at roughly three times the rate of those with engaged oversight. At Hai San on September 2, that role was either unfilled or not being performed. The other six high-severity violations that day are consistent with what happens when no one is actively managing food safety.
The Longer Record
The September 2 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Hai San has been inspected 24 times and has accumulated 231 total violations across its history, with zero emergency closures.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent across years. On January 14, 2026, inspectors found seven high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, the same count as September 2. On October 3, 2023, the tally was again seven high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. September 17, 2025 produced six high-severity violations. The facility has logged three or more high-severity violations in every inspection on record going back to at least 2023.
The two-day gap between the September 2 inspection and the September 4 follow-up visit is notable. The follow-up found two high-severity violations and one intermediate, a reduction but not a clean bill. A facility that requires a follow-up inspection and still produces high-severity violations two days after a nine-violation inspection is not one that has resolved its underlying problems.
What the record does not show is a single emergency closure across 24 inspections and 231 violations. The restaurant has been allowed to remain open through repeated cycles of high-severity findings, brief improvements, and renewed violations, including two separate inspections in the same week in both 2025 and 2026.
Still Open
Two days after inspectors documented toxic chemicals stored near food, no illness reporting system, improper handwashing, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and an absent or disengaged person in charge, Hai San Chinese Restaurant on West Colonial Drive was still operating. A follow-up visit on September 4 found two more high-severity violations.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
