PORT ORANGE, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into PO Redbowl LLC on Dunlawton Avenue and found food being sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means no one, including the restaurant, could trace where that food came from if a customer got sick.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented during the April 9 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and documented that the restaurant had no written employee health policy at all. Those two violations appeared together on the same inspection report.
Inspectors noted improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands but doing so incorrectly. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. No allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff.
On the intermediate level, the inspector found improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils that had not been properly cleaned, inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting. That is eleven violations across six high-severity and five intermediate categories in a single visit.
What These Violations Mean
The unapproved food sourcing violation is among the most consequential on the list. When a restaurant cannot identify where its food came from, there is no chain of traceability if a customer becomes ill. USDA and FDA inspections exist to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens at the supplier level. Food that bypasses that system arrives with no such screening.
The illness reporting and health policy violations compound each other. A written employee health policy is what tells a worker to stay home when they have vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice. Without that policy, and without employees reporting symptoms, a sick worker can transmit Norovirus directly to food. Norovirus is the leading cause of multi-victim foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States.
Improper handwashing technique is a different kind of failure than no handwashing at all. It means an employee believes they have washed their hands when they have not done so effectively. Pathogens remain on the hands and transfer to food, surfaces, and utensils.
The allergen violation is the one that can move fastest from a meal to an emergency room. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and a kitchen staff that cannot demonstrate allergen awareness has no reliable way to prevent cross-contact with the eight major allergens. That gap causes roughly 30,000 emergency room visits annually in the United States.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an outlier. State records show PO Redbowl has logged 28 inspections and 312 total violations since opening, with zero emergency closures in that entire span.
The pattern across the most recent inspections is consistent. In September 2025, inspectors found five high-severity and one intermediate violation. In March 2025, five high and four intermediate. In September 2024, nine high and three intermediate. In January 2024, six high and three intermediate.
Go back further and the numbers hold. Eight high-severity violations in August 2023. Seven high in February 2023. Eight high in July 2022, followed three days later by another inspection that found two more high violations. The restaurant has not recorded a single inspection in the past four years with fewer than two high-severity violations.
The categories repeat. Illness policy failures, food sourcing concerns, and sanitation violations appear across multiple inspection cycles. A facility with 28 inspections on record and 312 cumulative violations, none of which triggered a closure, is a facility the record has visited many times without resolution.
Still Open
State inspectors classified six of the eleven April violations as high severity, the designation reserved for conditions that most directly endanger customers. The facility had no written policy requiring sick employees to report symptoms. It was sourcing food from suppliers it could not document. Its staff could not demonstrate allergen awareness.
After the April 9 inspection, PO Redbowl remained open.