CHIEFLAND, FL. A state inspector walked into Q5 Pho on NW 26th Avenue on August 10 and found food sourced from suppliers that could not be verified as safe, no system to keep sick employees out of the kitchen, and evidence that food was not being cooked to the temperatures required to kill Salmonella and other pathogens. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection produced 10 high-severity violations and 7 intermediate violations, a total of 17 citations from a single visit at a restaurant that has now accumulated 65 violations across six inspections on record.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most serious on the list. Inspectors cited Q5 Pho for receiving food from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning some of the ingredients served to customers that day had not passed through the USDA or FDA inspection chain. If a customer were to become ill, investigators would have no supply records to trace the origin of the food.
Alongside that, inspectors found that food was not being cooked to required minimum internal temperatures. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A restaurant serving pho, which typically contains beef or chicken broth and proteins, has multiple points in the cooking process where temperature compliance is not optional.
The shell stock violation adds another layer. Inspectors cited inadequate shellfish identification records, meaning oysters, clams, or mussels on the premises lacked the tags required to trace them back to a certified harvest source. Shellfish consumed raw or lightly cooked are among the highest-risk foods in any restaurant setting.
Three of the ten high-severity violations were directly tied to employee illness controls. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, no system requiring employees to report symptoms of illness, and no person in charge present or performing supervisory duties. Those three failures together describe a kitchen where a sick worker had no formal obligation to stay home, no manager to enforce any such rule, and no written standard telling them what the rule was.
Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were making handwashing attempts that still left pathogens on their hands, and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory notifying customers that some menu items are served raw or undercooked.
On the intermediate side, inspectors found improper sewage or wastewater disposal, inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, improper use of wiping cloths, and inadequate toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved food sources and undercooked food is a compounding risk. When a restaurant cannot document where its food came from, it cannot guarantee that the product was inspected, handled, or stored safely before it arrived. When that same food is then not cooked to the temperatures required to kill bacteria, any pathogens present in the raw product survive onto the plate.
The illness policy failures are acutely dangerous in a small kitchen. Norovirus, which causes the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through direct contact with an infected food worker. Without a written health policy and without a manager enforcing one, there is no structural barrier between a sick employee and the food they are preparing.
Improper sewage disposal, cited as an intermediate violation here, introduces fecal contamination risk throughout the facility. Raw sewage carries E. coli, Hepatitis A, and other pathogens. Its presence in a food preparation environment is not a paperwork problem.
The inadequate cooling equipment violation means the restaurant lacked the mechanical capacity to keep food below 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the threshold above which bacterial growth accelerates sharply. A restaurant that cannot hold cold food cold is operating without one of the most basic safeguards in food service.
The Longer Record
Q5 Pho has six inspections on record and 65 total violations. That is not a restaurant caught in a single bad week.
The inspection history shows a pattern of serious violations followed by clean follow-up inspections, then a return to high violation counts. In November 2025, inspectors found 4 high-severity and 8 intermediate violations. Three days later, a follow-up visit showed zero violations. In February 2026, inspectors again found 8 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations. A follow-up nine days later again showed zero. The August 10 inspection produced the highest single-visit high-severity count in the facility's record, at 10.
The pattern suggests the restaurant is capable of correcting violations when under direct scrutiny and reverting when that scrutiny lifts. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
Open for Business
A follow-up inspection three days later, on August 13, found zero high-severity violations and zero intermediate violations. The record shows the restaurant corrected its citations quickly, as it has done before.
What the record does not show is any inspection between February and August 2026, a six-month gap during which the restaurant accumulated its largest single-visit violation count. Q5 Pho served customers throughout August 10, the day inspectors documented food from unverified sources, undercooked food, no illness policy, and no manager on duty.
It was not closed.
