DELTONA, FL. A food worker at Roma Pizza on Courtland Boulevard was observed failing to report illness symptoms during an August 6 state inspection, a violation inspectors flagged as a direct outbreak risk, and the restaurant remained open throughout.
The Volusia County inspection documented eight high-severity violations and two intermediate violations at the 600 Courtland Blvd. location. Not one of them triggered an emergency closure.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting violation sits at the top of the list for a reason. Food workers who do not disclose symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea are the leading cause of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks, particularly Norovirus events that can spread to dozens of customers before anyone traces the source back to the kitchen.
Compounding that, the restaurant had no written employee health policy in place. Without one, there is no documented standard telling workers when to stay home, when to report symptoms to a manager, or what happens if they don't.
The handwashing record made things worse. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing and improper technique as separate high-severity violations. That combination means employees were either skipping handwashing steps entirely or going through the motions without actually removing pathogens from their hands.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and equipment that touch food directly are among the most reliable vectors for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items when they are not sanitized between uses.
Inspectors also flagged food in poor condition and inadequate shell stock identification records. The shellfish citation is particularly significant: oysters, clams, and mussels are consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without proper harvest tags and dealer records, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch if customers get sick.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of illness-reporting failures and handwashing violations is what epidemiologists describe as a direct transmission pathway. A sick employee who does not report symptoms, does not wash hands properly, and then handles food or food-contact surfaces can contaminate dozens of meals before anyone connects the illnesses to a single source. Norovirus, which spreads this way, requires an infectious dose of fewer than 20 viral particles.
The shell stock traceability violation adds a separate layer of risk. When shellfish arrive without adequate harvest identification, there is no chain of custody. If a contaminated batch causes illness, investigators cannot identify where it came from, which harvest waters were involved, or how many other restaurants received the same product.
The consumer advisory violation affects every customer who orders anything raw or undercooked, including items like rare meat or lightly cooked shellfish. Without a posted advisory, customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised have no way of knowing those items carry elevated risk. The restaurant is required to disclose that information. It did not.
Reusing single-use items, the first of the two intermediate violations, creates contamination risk that compounds everything else. Gloves, utensils, and containers designed for one use accumulate bacteria on their surfaces after that first use. When they are reused, those pathogens transfer directly to the next food they contact.
The Longer Record
The August 6 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Roma Pizza has been inspected 30 times and has accumulated 174 total violations across its history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern across recent inspections is consistent. In March 2026, five months before the August visit, inspectors documented seven high-severity violations and one intermediate. In April 2025, a two-day inspection sequence produced seven high-severity and four intermediate violations on April 24, followed by one high-severity and two intermediate violations the next day. In November 2024, the count was six high-severity and three intermediate.
The only clean inspection in the recent record was January 2024, when inspectors found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. Every inspection before and after that date found high-severity violations.
Eight high-severity violations in a single inspection is the worst single-visit count in the facility's recent documented history. The March 2026 inspection, at seven high-severity violations, was the previous high. The restaurant has now exceeded that mark.
The Longer Pattern
What the inspection record shows, across 30 visits and 174 total violations, is a facility that cycles through serious citations without a sustained correction. High-severity violations appeared in six of the eight most recent inspections on record. The categories repeat: handwashing, food handling, health policy, surface sanitation.
The August inspection added shellfish traceability and consumer advisory failures to that list, violations that directly affect whether customers can make informed choices and whether investigators could trace an outbreak if one occurred.
Roma Pizza was open for business on August 6, 2026, after inspectors documented eight high-severity violations and left.
