ORLANDO, FL. When state inspectors visited Pescao at 4862 S. Orange Blossom Trail on May 26, 2026, they found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, a violation that carries the risk of acute poisoning through direct contamination or mislabeling. They also found no employee health policy, improper handwashing technique, inadequate handwashing facilities, food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked seafood. That is six high-severity violations. The restaurant was not closed.

What Inspectors Found

1HIGHToxic chemicals improperly stored or labeledAcute poisoning risk
2HIGHNo employee health policyDisease transmission risk
3HIGHInadequate handwashing facilitiesHygiene infrastructure failure
4HIGHImproper hand and arm washing techniquePathogen transfer risk
5HIGHFood contact surfaces not cleaned/sanitizedCross-contamination risk
6HIGHNo consumer advisory for raw/undercooked foodsUninformed vulnerable customers
7INTImproper sewage or waste water disposalFecal contamination risk
8INTMulti-use utensils not properly cleanedBacterial biofilm risk
9INTImproper sanitizing solution or proceduresSanitizer failure
10INTSingle-use items improperly reusedContamination risk

The chemical storage violation is the most immediately dangerous finding in the report. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food create a direct pathway to poisoning, either through accidental contamination of a food surface or through a worker mistaking a chemical container for a food ingredient.

Alongside it, the absence of any employee health policy means the restaurant had no written protocol requiring sick workers to stay out of the kitchen. That is not a paperwork problem. It is the primary administrative control against a sick employee transmitting Norovirus or Salmonella to everyone who orders a plate.

The handwashing findings compound each other. Inadequate facilities means the infrastructure to wash hands properly was not in place. Improper technique means that even when workers attempted to wash, they were not doing it correctly. Both violations were cited on the same inspection.

The missing consumer advisory for raw or undercooked seafood is a separate concern. Pescao is a seafood restaurant. Customers ordering ceviche, raw oysters, or lightly cooked fish have no way of knowing, from a posted advisory, that those items carry elevated risk for pregnant women, elderly customers, and anyone with a compromised immune system.

What These Violations Mean

The handwashing cluster at Pescao illustrates how individual violations reinforce each other. Inadequate facilities and improper technique together mean that the most basic barrier between a food worker's hands and a customer's plate was failing at both the structural and behavioral level. Studies on foodborne illness outbreaks consistently identify hand contamination as a transmission route, and a kitchen where workers cannot or do not wash hands correctly is a kitchen where that route stays open.

The food contact surface violation adds another layer. Cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that are not properly cleaned and sanitized carry bacteria from one food item to the next. At a seafood restaurant, where raw shellfish and ready-to-eat items may share the same prep space, that is a direct cross-contamination pathway.

Improper sewage or wastewater disposal, one of the four intermediate violations, carries fecal contamination risk throughout the facility. Raw sewage contains pathogens including E. coli and Hepatitis A. Its presence anywhere near a food preparation area is not a maintenance issue. It is a contamination issue.

Single-use items being reused and multi-use utensils not properly cleaned were both cited in the same inspection. Together they describe a kitchen where the boundary between clean and contaminated equipment had broken down.

The Longer Record

Pescao Inspection History: High-Severity Violations

May 20266 high, 4 intermediate violations. Facility remained open.
June 20256 high, 4 intermediate violations.
May 20245 high, 5 intermediate violations.
June 20236 high, 2 intermediate violations.
April 20224 high, 1 intermediate violation.
December 20215 high, 1 intermediate violation.
October 20216 high, 2 intermediate violations.
April 2021 (4/26)0 high, 0 intermediate violations.
April 2021 (4/23)5 high, 1 intermediate violation. Three days before the clean inspection.

This is not a restaurant that had a bad month. State records show 25 inspections on file for Pescao and 207 total violations across that history. Every annual inspection since at least 2021 has produced five or six high-severity citations.

The pattern is specific. Six high-severity violations in October 2021. Five in December 2021. Six in June 2023. Six in June 2025. Six again in May 2026. The number has barely moved in five years.

There is one inspection in the record, from April 26, 2021, that produced zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. It came three days after a separate inspection on April 23, 2021, that found five high-severity violations. That gap, clean one visit and cited heavily the next, appears once in 25 inspections.

Pescao has never been emergency-closed, according to state records.

Still Open

The May 26, 2026 inspection ended with six high-severity violations documented and the restaurant continuing to serve customers. The violations included toxic chemicals near food, no written policy for keeping sick workers out of the kitchen, and food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized.

The record shows this outcome is not unusual for Pescao. What is unusual is that across 25 inspections and 207 documented violations, the state has never ordered it shut.