ORLANDO, FL. A food handler at Pho Haven on Narcoossee Road was observed cooking food that did not reach the minimum required temperature on September 11, a violation that inspectors flagged as high-severity, and the restaurant was not closed.
That single finding sat alongside five other high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. State inspectors documented all of them, filed the report, and left the facility open.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation is the most direct line between kitchen practice and a sick customer. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a bowl of pho built on improperly cooked protein carries that risk to the table.
Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique. This is distinct from simply not washing hands. An employee made an attempt and still left pathogens on their hands because the method was wrong.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Surfaces that touch raw meat, broth, and ready-to-eat items throughout a shift become transfer points for bacteria if they are not cleaned between uses.
The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. Pho is a dish that frequently involves customer-side cooking, with thin-sliced raw beef added to hot broth at the table. Without a posted advisory, a pregnant customer, an elderly diner, or someone with a compromised immune system has no way of knowing the risk they are accepting.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and no person in charge actively performing duties creates the conditions for every other violation on this list. Without a written health policy, a worker who wakes up with stomach cramps has no formal guidance telling them to stay home. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads through exactly this route: an infected food handler who doesn't know, or isn't told, to stay away from work.
The person-in-charge violation compounds this. When no one in the kitchen is actively monitoring food safety, technique failures accumulate. Improper handwashing goes uncorrected. Surfaces don't get sanitized between tasks. Cooking temperatures don't get verified. Research from the CDC shows establishments without active managerial control log three times more critical violations than those with it.
The sewage disposal violation is the one that most readers will find alarming once they understand it. Improper handling of wastewater creates a pathway for fecal contamination to reach food preparation areas. That is not a minor housekeeping issue.
Reusing single-use items, also cited here, sounds minor. It is not. Items designed for one use, whether cups, gloves, or foil, are not built to be sanitized. Reuse means contamination from a prior use carries forward.
The Longer Record
The September 11 inspection was not a bad day at an otherwise clean restaurant. It was the ninth inspection on record showing high-severity violations at Pho Haven, and the facility has never been emergency-closed.
The record runs back at least to July 2023, when inspectors found seven high-severity and four intermediate violations. The following year, a September 2024 inspection produced the worst single-visit total in the record: eight high-severity and six intermediate violations. That inspection did not result in a closure either.
The pattern has not improved. In the five inspections between October 2025 and September 2026, the facility logged between three and six high-severity violations every single time. The most recent inspection on record, September 21, 2026, ten days after the visit described in this article, found five high-severity and three intermediate violations.
Across 15 inspections, Pho Haven has accumulated 152 total violations. That is an average of more than ten violations per inspection visit.
Still Open
The violations documented on September 11 include undercooked food, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, wrong handwashing technique, no employee health policy, no consumer advisory for raw items, no active manager, improper sewage disposal, improperly cleaned utensils, reused single-use items, and inadequate ventilation.
State inspectors counted six of those as high-severity.
Pho Haven was not closed.
