ORLANDO, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly near food at La Campana Mexican and Seafood Restaurant on Lee Road when state inspectors arrived on September 29, one of six high-severity violations documented during a visit that ended with the restaurant still open and serving customers.
The inspection, conducted at the 820 Lee Rd. location in Orange County, turned up a list of failures that touched nearly every layer of basic food safety: management, hygiene, equipment sanitation, chemical storage, and consumer disclosure. Inspectors cited three additional intermediate violations before they left.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violation is among the most immediately dangerous a restaurant can receive. Cleaning agents and other toxic compounds stored near or above food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, through spills or mislabeled containers, without any visible sign that anything has gone wrong.
Food contact surfaces, meaning the cutting boards, prep tables, and equipment that touch the food customers eat, were also cited as not properly cleaned or sanitized. That category of violation is a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer from raw proteins to ready-to-eat food.
No person in charge was present or performing duties during the inspection. That single finding helps explain how the other five high-severity violations could exist simultaneously at the same location.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. La Campana is a seafood restaurant. Customers ordering dishes that may include raw or undercooked shellfish or fish have no written notice that doing so carries elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
The absence of an employee health policy is not a paperwork technicality. Without a written policy requiring sick employees to report symptoms and stay away from food handling, there is no structural barrier stopping a worker with Norovirus from preparing food for customers. Norovirus is responsible for approximately 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are among its most efficient transmission routes.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk. Inspectors cited not just the absence of handwashing but the wrong technique, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands and still leaving pathogens behind. That distinction matters: a failed attempt can feel like a completed step, removing the psychological prompt to try again.
Inadequate cold-holding equipment, one of the three intermediate violations, means the restaurant's ability to keep food out of the bacterial growth zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, was physically compromised. Equipment that cannot hold proper temperature is not a behavioral problem an employee can correct on a given shift.
Improper waste disposal rounds out the intermediate findings. Overflowing or improperly managed waste draws the pests, including cockroaches, flies, and rodents, that carry their own contamination risks into a kitchen.
The Longer Record
The September 29 inspection was not an outlier. State records show La Campana has been inspected 37 times and has accumulated 352 total violations across its history, with zero emergency closures on record.
The most recent eight inspections, stretching back to April 2024, tell a consistent story. In February 2025, inspectors found 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate ones. In October 2025, the tally was 9 high and 6 intermediate. In April 2026, 9 high and 2 intermediate. The September 2026 inspection, with 6 high and 3 intermediate, is not the worst visit on record. It is closer to average.
High-severity violations have appeared in every single one of the eight most recent inspections without exception. The categories recur: management failures, food handling, sanitation. The pattern does not suggest a restaurant that had a bad week.
La Campana has never been emergency-closed despite this record. State inspectors visited, documented violations, and the restaurant continued operating after each one.
Still Open
After the September 29 inspection, with six high-severity violations documented including toxic chemicals stored near food and no functioning employee health policy, La Campana remained open.
Customers who ate there that day, or in the days that followed, had no way of knowing what inspectors had found. The orange closure sticker that would have told them something was wrong was never posted.
The inspection record is public. The restaurant is still operating at 820 Lee Rd.
