ORLANDO, FL. Inspectors visiting La Strega Bistro at 504 N. Alafaya Trail on July 29 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means whatever was served that day had bypassed every federal safety checkpoint designed to catch Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before it reaches a plate.
The restaurant was not closed.
Despite seven high-severity violations and five intermediate citations documented in a single visit, the Orange County bistro continued operating. The July 29 inspection added to a record that now totals 255 violations across 21 inspections on file with the state.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source citation was not the only finding that put customers at direct risk. Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were going through the motion of washing their hands without actually removing pathogens. That is a distinct violation from the separate citation for inadequate handwashing facilities, which suggests the infrastructure to wash hands properly was not in place to begin with.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces rounded out the hygiene failures. Cutting boards, prep tables, and any surface where raw food is handled can transfer bacteria directly onto the next item prepared, with no step in between to interrupt that transfer.
Inspectors also found toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Chemicals stored near or above food preparation areas, or without proper labeling, create a contamination risk that is immediate and has nothing to do with bacteria.
The intermediate violations added their own layer of concern. Improper sewage or wastewater disposal was documented, a finding that points to fecal contamination risk spreading beyond a single surface. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned, and single-use items were being reused.
What These Violations Mean
The food from unapproved sources violation is among the most consequential a restaurant can receive, and it is easy to underestimate. When food enters a restaurant through channels outside the USDA and FDA inspection system, there is no traceability. If a customer gets sick, investigators cannot trace the ingredient back to a farm, processor, or distributor. The supply chain that exists specifically to catch contaminated product before it reaches a kitchen was bypassed entirely.
The handwashing violations compound that risk. Inspectors cited both the physical infrastructure, inadequate handwashing facilities, and the technique employees used when they did attempt to wash. Studies show that improperly performed handwashing removes far fewer pathogens than a correctly executed wash. When the facilities are also inadequate, the failure is structural, not just behavioral.
No employee health policy means there is no written protocol requiring sick workers to stay home or report symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice to a manager. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads with particular efficiency when an infected food handler continues working. A written policy is one of the basic mechanisms designed to interrupt that chain.
The sewage disposal citation sits in the intermediate tier but carries immediate public health weight. Raw sewage contains pathogens at concentrations high enough to contaminate surfaces, food, and water throughout a facility. Finding it improperly disposed of in a food-service environment is not a paperwork problem.
The Longer Record
La Strega Bistro: Recent Inspection Pattern
The July 29 inspection was not an outlier. It was the continuation of a pattern that stretches back through every inspection on record for this address.
In February 2026, inspectors visited La Strega Bistro on three consecutive days, February 11, 12, and 13, and found 8 high-severity violations each time. The violations did not change from one day to the next. The restaurant was not closed on any of those three days either.
Going further back, the July 2024 inspection produced 9 high-severity violations, the highest single-visit total in the record. The March 2024 inspection found 8 high-severity violations. The October 2023 inspection found 8. Across 21 inspections, the facility has accumulated 255 total violations and has never been emergency-closed.
The July 29 visit was the ninth inspection in the record to document at least seven high-severity violations. The restaurant remained open after each one.
