FORT MYERS, FL. Food served at a Fort Myers pizzeria on September 9 came from sources inspectors could not verify as approved, a violation that means there is no way to trace that food back through the supply chain if a customer gets sick.
State inspectors cited Las Hermanas Pizzeria 2 on Colonial Boulevard for six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations during that inspection. The restaurant was not emergency-closed. It remained open to customers.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source violation is one of the most serious on the list. Food that bypasses USDA and FDA inspection channels has not been verified for contamination, labeling accuracy, or safe handling at the point of origin. If someone becomes ill after eating at the restaurant, investigators have no supply chain to trace.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures. For certain fish, pork, and wild game, state code requires specific freezing temperatures held for specific durations, or verified cooking temperatures, to kill parasites including Anisakis, tapeworm, and Trichinella. The violation means those procedures were not documented or followed.
The restaurant had no written employee health policy. Without one, there is no formal mechanism to keep a sick worker out of the kitchen. A single employee working through a Norovirus infection can expose every plate that leaves the line.
Food contact surfaces, including cutting boards, prep tables, and any equipment that touches ingredients directly, were found not properly cleaned or sanitized. Those surfaces are a primary transfer point for bacterial contamination from one food to another.
Inspectors found food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and cited staff for demonstrating no allergen awareness. That last violation means employees could not reliably identify which menu items contained common allergens, a gap that affects the roughly 32 million Americans living with food allergies.
On the intermediate side, inspectors documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal and improper use of wiping cloths. Sewage violations inside a food service facility introduce fecal contamination risk throughout the kitchen. Improperly used wiping cloths, when shared across surfaces or stored in standing water, move bacteria from one part of the kitchen to another with every wipe.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved food sourcing and no parasite destruction procedures is particularly significant because they compound each other. Food from an unverified source may carry pathogens that standard inspection would have flagged. If that food also skips the temperature or freezing protocols designed to kill parasites, there is no safety net at either end of the supply chain.
The allergen awareness violation carries its own acute risk. Food allergies send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms in the United States each year, and reactions can turn fatal within minutes. A kitchen where staff cannot identify allergens in dishes is a kitchen where a customer with a peanut, shellfish, or gluten allergy has no reliable way to make a safe choice from the menu.
The absence of an employee health policy does not mean sick workers were observed on September 9. It means there is no written rule telling them to stay home. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through direct contact with an infected food handler. A policy on paper is the first line of defense.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, combined with wiping cloths used across multiple surfaces without sanitizing, creates a continuous loop of potential cross-contamination. Raw proteins, allergens, and bacteria can travel from a cutting board to a prep surface to a finished plate without any visible sign that anything went wrong.
The Longer Record
Las Hermanas Pizzeria 2 has two inspections on record. The first, on December 17, 2025, resulted in zero high-severity violations and zero intermediate violations. The restaurant passed cleanly.
Nine months later, the same facility produced six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations in a single visit, accounting for every violation in its entire inspection history.
This is not a pattern built over years of accumulated citations. It is a sharp, single-inspection collapse from a clean record. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Still Open
State inspectors documented eight violations on September 9, six of them carrying the highest severity designation the state assigns. Food of unknown origin was being used in the kitchen. Parasite destruction steps were not being followed. No one on staff could demonstrate allergen awareness. There was no written policy to keep a sick employee out of the food line.
Las Hermanas Pizzeria 2 was not closed. It remained open that day, and the record does not show a follow-up closure order. The violations are on file. The restaurant is still operating on Colonial Boulevard.
