MOUNT DORA, FL. Inspectors visiting Las Palmas Cuban Restaurant on North Donnelly Street on June 10 found that the kitchen had not followed parasite destruction procedures for fish or other proteins that require them, meaning customers may have been served food with live parasites, including Anisakis and tapeworm, capable of surviving the cooking process entirely.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented in a single inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
Beyond the parasite failure, inspectors cited food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Undercooking is one of the most direct routes to foodborne illness, because bacteria like Salmonella in poultry survive below 165 degrees Fahrenheit and can cause acute illness within hours of consumption.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. That violation carries a risk of acute chemical poisoning if a contaminated container reaches the food line or a mislabeled bottle is mistaken for a food product.
Food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep surfaces, were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also cited food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and found no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. Employees were documented using improper handwashing technique.
Five intermediate violations accompanied the seven high-severity findings. Those included improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, improper sanitizing solution or procedures, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction citation is one of the more uncommon high-severity violations in routine restaurant inspections, and one of the more consequential. When fish, pork, or wild game is not frozen or cooked according to required protocols, parasites including Anisakis, tapeworm, and Trichinella can reach a customer's plate alive. Symptoms range from severe abdominal pain to systemic infection requiring hospitalization.
Pairing that failure with a separate citation for food not reaching required cooking temperatures creates a compounded risk. If proteins are both improperly handled before cooking and then undercooled during cooking, the margin for error that ordinarily protects diners is gone entirely.
The toxic chemical storage violation is distinct from the food safety failures but no less serious. Chemicals stored near food or in unlabeled containers can contaminate a dish without any visible sign. The customer who ordered has no way to know.
The sewage and wastewater disposal violation carries its own category of risk. Improper disposal of raw sewage inside a food service facility creates pathways for fecal contamination, including E. coli and norovirus, to reach food preparation surfaces. Combined with improperly sanitized utensils and failed sanitizer concentrations documented in the same inspection, the June 10 visit painted a kitchen where multiple contamination barriers had broken down at once.
The Longer Record
The June 10 inspection was not an outlier. State records show 31 inspections on file for Las Palmas, with 370 total violations documented across that history, and one prior emergency closure.
That closure came on January 25, 2017, when inspectors shut the restaurant down for roach activity. It reopened the following day.
The more recent pattern is a string of high-severity violations across nearly every inspection on record. In September 2025, inspectors cited 8 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations. In October 2024, it was 7 high and 6 intermediate. In November 2024, another 7 high and 4 intermediate. The March 2026 inspection logged 8 high-severity violations, followed by a follow-up the next day that still found 4 high-severity and 1 intermediate.
The lone exception in the recent record was a June 2024 inspection that produced zero high or intermediate violations. That result stands out precisely because every inspection before and after it found serious problems.
The day after the June 10 inspection reviewed in this article, a follow-up visit on June 11 found 4 more high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. The serious findings did not stop when the inspector left.
Still Open
State records do not indicate that Las Palmas was emergency-closed following the June 10 inspection, despite the seven high-severity violations documented that day. The violations included failures at nearly every stage of food safety, from how employees washed their hands, to how proteins were cooked, to how chemicals were stored alongside food.
Thirty-one inspections. Three hundred seventy violations. One prior emergency closure for roaches in 2017.
The restaurant was open for business after inspectors left on June 10.