CLERMONT, FL. A state inspector walked into Josie's Pizza and Wings on South Highway 27 on August 4 and found that chicken and other food was not being cooked to the minimum temperature required to kill Salmonella and other pathogens. That single violation, on its own, is enough to trigger an emergency closure at many Florida restaurants.
It was one of eleven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is among the most direct routes to a foodborne illness outbreak. Salmonella survives in poultry held below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a pizza and wings restaurant that is not hitting that threshold is putting every customer who orders chicken at risk.
The chemical violations compound that picture. Inspectors cited the restaurant on two related counts: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Cleaning chemicals stored near food or mislabeled can cause acute poisoning, not a slow-building illness but an immediate one.
The food contact surfaces violation rounds out the most urgent findings. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that are not properly cleaned and sanitized between uses become direct transfer points for bacteria from one food to the next.
Three additional high-severity violations pointed to a breakdown in the most basic food safety management. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and the person in charge was either absent or not performing required duties. Those three violations are rarely coincidental. They tend to arrive together when oversight has collapsed.
The inspector also cited improper handwashing technique, food found in poor condition or adulterated, inadequate shell stock identification records, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked menu items. The five intermediate violations included improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate cooling equipment, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooking violation carries the most immediate consequence for anyone who ate at Josie's around August 4. Salmonella in undercooked poultry causes severe gastrointestinal illness, and it is not detectable by sight, smell, or taste. A customer ordering wings has no way to know whether the chicken on the plate reached a safe internal temperature.
The employee illness violations are a different category of danger. When a restaurant has no written health policy and employees are not required to report symptoms, a worker who is sick with Norovirus has no formal reason to stay home or be sent home. Norovirus is responsible for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and a single infected food handler can expose dozens of customers in a single shift.
The sewage violation, classified as intermediate, is not a minor paperwork issue. Improper wastewater disposal creates the potential for fecal contamination to spread through a kitchen, and in a facility where handwashing technique was also cited as inadequate, those two violations reinforce each other in a way that multiplies the risk.
The shell stock records violation is less visible to most diners but matters if someone gets sick. Oysters, clams, and mussels are high-risk foods consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without proper identification records, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch back to its source if customers become ill.
The Longer Record
Josie's Pizza and Wings: Inspection History
The August inspection was not a bad day in an otherwise clean record. State records show seven inspections at the Clermont location going back to September 2024, and six of those seven visits produced high-severity violations. The facility has accumulated 112 total violations across that span.
The single clean inspection came in September 2024, when inspectors found zero high-severity violations and one intermediate. Every visit since then has produced high-severity findings, and the counts have climbed: 8 high in March 2025, then 6 in September, then 7 in February 2026, then 11 in August.
The categories have also repeated. High-severity violations tied to management control, employee health, and food handling have appeared across multiple inspections. The August visit was not the first time inspectors flagged these problems at this location.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed. It remained open after the August 4 inspection, with all eleven high-severity violations on the books.
