POMPANO BEACH, FL. Inspectors visiting Peking Duck House at 1200 E Atlantic Blvd on July 24 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning some of what was served that day had bypassed every federal safety checkpoint between farm and table. The restaurant was not closed.
That single finding was one of eight high-severity violations documented during the visit. Three intermediate violations brought the total to eleven.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is among the most direct threats to anyone who ate there that day. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a restaurant named for its signature roasted bird, that citation is not a technicality.
The shell stock identification violation compounds the sourcing problem. Shellfish, including oysters and clams, are consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without proper harvest tags and chain-of-custody records, there is no way to trace an illness back to a specific lot if someone gets sick.
No person in charge was present, or the person present was not performing supervisory duties. That finding sat alongside a citation for employees not reporting illness symptoms, and for improper handwashing technique. The three violations together describe a kitchen operating without the oversight that catches exactly those problems.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources means the restaurant was using ingredients that never passed through a USDA or FDA-regulated supply chain. If a customer became ill, investigators would have no paper trail to identify where the food came from or who else received it from the same supplier. That traceability gap is not a bureaucratic concern; it is the difference between containing an outbreak and losing it.
The employee illness reporting failure is categorically different from a cleaning citation. Food workers are the primary transmission route for norovirus, one of the most contagious pathogens in food service. An employee who does not report symptoms, and who continues handling food, can infect dozens of customers before a single complaint surfaces.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, combined with improper wiping cloth use, mean that surfaces appearing clean may carry bacterial contamination from one food to the next. Cutting boards and prep surfaces that are not properly sanitized between uses are a documented primary vehicle for cross-contamination. The wiping cloth citation suggests cloths were being used in ways that spread rather than removed contamination.
Inadequate ventilation adds a less visible risk. Grease-laden vapors accumulating in a kitchen are a fire hazard, and poor air circulation accelerates the growth of mold and bacteria in prep areas.
The Longer Record
The July 24 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Peking Duck House has been inspected 26 times and has accumulated 189 total violations across its history. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent across recent years. In January 2026, inspectors documented 9 high-severity violations in a single visit, the highest single-inspection count in the recent record. In May 2025, there were 5 high-severity violations. In September 2024, another 5. The restaurant passed cleanly in November 2024 and January 2024, showing it is capable of meeting standards. But those clean inspections have not held.
The July 24 visit produced 8 high-severity violations, second only to the January 2026 inspection in recent severity. The follow-up visit one day later, on July 25, found 1 high-severity and 1 intermediate violation, a sharp reduction. But the sourcing violation, the undercooking citation, and the illness reporting failure were all present on July 24, while the restaurant remained open and serving customers.
The Facility Remained Open
Florida law gives inspectors the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Eight high-severity violations, including food from an unknown source, undercooking, and no supervisory oversight, did not meet that threshold at Peking Duck House on July 24.
The restaurant was open the following day when inspectors returned for a callback visit. That visit found one high-severity violation still on the books.
Customers who ate at Peking Duck House on July 24 had no way of knowing that the food on their table may have come from a supplier that bypassed federal inspection, that it may not have been cooked to the temperature required to kill Salmonella, or that the person responsible for ensuring those standards were met was not doing that job.
The restaurant was not closed.
