ORLANDO, FL. Inspectors who visited Mama Lau and OC LLC at 5038 W Colonial Drive on April 23 found food coming from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning no USDA or FDA safety inspection had touched it before it reached customers' plates.
That single finding is among the most serious a Florida food safety inspector can document. It was one of seven high-severity violations recorded that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The full list from the April 23 inspection runs ten violations deep. Beyond the unapproved food sourcing, inspectors cited food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, a violation that directly concerns whether pathogens like Salmonella are killed before a dish reaches the table.
Toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly, placing them in proximity to food. Required procedures for specialized food processes, which can include smoking, curing, or reduced-oxygen packaging, were not being followed. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Employees were washing hands using improper technique, and the restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items. That last violation matters specifically because customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised cannot make an informed decision about risk if they are never told the risk exists.
Three intermediate violations accompanied the seven high-severity ones: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, sanitizing solution at incorrect concentration or applied incorrectly, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved or unknown sources is not a paperwork problem. When food bypasses USDA or FDA inspection, there is no traceability if customers become ill. If a Listeria or Salmonella outbreak is traced to a restaurant, investigators need to follow the supply chain backward to find the source and pull contaminated product. Food from unknown sources breaks that chain entirely.
Undercooking compounds the sourcing problem. Poultry that has not reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit can carry live Salmonella. When that same poultry may have come from a source that skipped federal inspection, the margin for error disappears.
Improper handwashing technique is a violation that inspectors sometimes treat as minor. It is not. A worker who goes through the motions of handwashing but uses incorrect technique transfers pathogens from raw proteins, surfaces, or waste directly to food being prepared for customers. Combined with food contact surfaces that are not properly sanitized and multi-use utensils that are not properly cleaned, the April 23 inspection at Mama Lau describes a kitchen where contamination has multiple open pathways.
Improperly stored or labeled chemicals near food can cause acute poisoning with no warning. A mislabeled container, or a chemical stored above or beside a prep surface, is a single accident away from a medical emergency.
The Longer Record
The April 23 inspection is not an outlier. State records show Mama Lau and OC LLC has been inspected 32 times and has accumulated 288 total violations across that history.
The most recent prior inspections tell a consistent story. On September 4, 2025, inspectors found 4 high-severity and 1 intermediate violation. Three visits clustered around late August and early September 2025 each produced between 4 and 5 high-severity violations. In October 2024, two inspections on the same date found 6 high and 1 intermediate, then 4 high and 2 intermediate.
The facility has been emergency-closed twice. In August 2024, it was shut down for rodent activity and allowed to reopen two days later on August 10. In December 2019, it was closed for roach activity and reopened on January 2, 2020.
The inspection from September 26, 2023, produced 10 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations, the worst single-inspection count in the recent record. The August 8, 2024 inspection, the one that triggered the emergency closure for rodent activity, logged 8 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations before inspectors ordered the doors shut.
The Pattern
What the record shows is a facility that has cycled through serious violations, two emergency closures, and dozens of inspections without breaking the pattern. The violation counts have not trended downward over time. The categories repeat: food handling, sanitation, sourcing, cooking temperatures.
The April 23 inspection produced 7 high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources and food not cooked to required temperatures. The restaurant was not closed.