CLERMONT, FL. Inspectors visiting LongHorn Steakhouse at 1275 E Hwy 50 in September found that food was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures, a violation that carries a direct risk of salmonella and other pathogens surviving on the plate and reaching the customer.
The September 21 inspection turned up six high-severity violations and zero intermediate ones. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ordered meat that evening. At a steakhouse, that risk is not theoretical.
Food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep surfaces, were cited for not being properly cleaned or sanitized. That failure creates a transfer route for bacteria from raw proteins to everything prepared afterward on the same surface.
Two separate chemical violations appeared on the same inspection report. Toxic chemicals were found to be improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances were cited for improper identification, storage, or use. Both violations were flagged at the high-severity level.
The sixth violation: no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff. At a restaurant where dishes routinely contain dairy, gluten, tree nuts, and shellfish derivatives, that gap is not a paperwork problem.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooking citation is the one most likely to put a customer in a hospital. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a steakhouse, beef cooked below required temperatures carries E. coli risk. When inspectors document that food is not reaching minimum cook temperatures, they are documenting conditions under which a pathogen can survive the kitchen and reach the table intact.
The two chemical violations compound each other. Improperly labeled chemicals create a mislabeling risk: a cleaning solution stored without proper identification can be mistaken for a food-safe substance. Improper storage near food preparation areas creates a contamination pathway that does not require anyone to make a mistake. Proximity alone is the hazard.
The consumer advisory violation is specific to this restaurant's menu. LongHorn serves steaks cooked to customer preference, including rare and medium-rare. State rules require a written notice on menus when undercooked animal products are served, so that customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, the elderly, and young children can make an informed decision. No advisory means those customers had no warning.
The allergen violation carries the sharpest statistical weight. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans and send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. When kitchen staff cannot demonstrate allergen awareness, a customer with a tree nut or shellfish allergy is relying on a system that inspectors documented as absent.
The Longer Record
The September inspection was not an outlier. The Clermont LongHorn has five inspections on record, and four of them predate September 2026. Every single one of those prior visits produced high-severity violations.
The February 2026 inspection, seven months before September's visit, found six high-severity violations and one intermediate, an identical high-severity count to the most recent report. The January 2025 inspection also produced six high-severity violations, paired with two intermediate ones. The August 2025 inspection found four high-severity violations and two intermediate ones.
The one relative exception in the record is August 2024, which produced one high-severity violation and three intermediate ones. Every inspection since then has produced a higher high-severity count.
Across five inspections, the facility has accumulated 34 total violations on record. It has never been emergency-closed.
Still Open
Florida's inspection system allows regulators to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The Clermont LongHorn has never triggered that threshold across five inspections and 34 violations.
The pattern here is not a restaurant that had a bad day in September. It is a restaurant that has produced six high-severity violations in two separate inspections, in February 2026 and September 2026, without a closure order between them.
On September 21, after inspectors documented undercooking, unsanitized food contact surfaces, two chemical hazard violations, a missing consumer advisory, and no allergen awareness among staff, the restaurant stayed open for dinner service.
