NEW PORT RICHEY, FL. A state inspector visiting Rossi Ristorante Italiano on SR 54 on May 20 found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic chemicals improperly stored near kitchen surfaces, and no person in charge present or performing duties, all in the same inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
The visit produced seven high-severity violations and four intermediate ones, a tally that places it among the more serious inspection records in Pasco County this spring.
What Inspectors Found
The cooking temperature violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate at Rossi that day. Undercooked poultry can harbor Salmonella at temperatures below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The inspector found food that had not reached that threshold.
Alongside it, toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near kitchen areas. That is a separate, acute risk with no connection to cooking temperatures or sanitation technique.
The shellfish violation adds a third layer. Rossi's records for shell stock identification were found inadequate, meaning there was no reliable paper trail connecting the oysters, clams, or mussels on the menu to a licensed harvester or a specific harvest date. If a customer became ill, investigators would have no starting point.
Inspectors also cited improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and improper handwashing technique by employees. Both are direct cross-contamination pathways. The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, leaving customers with no way to make an informed choice about their own risk.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature violation is not a paperwork failure. Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other pathogens that survive in poultry are killed by sustained heat. When food does not reach the required minimum, those pathogens reach the plate. Anyone who ate poultry at Rossi on May 20 had no way to know their food had not been cooked to a safe temperature.
The shellfish traceability failure compounds that risk in a different direction. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria, viruses, and toxins from the water they grow in. Harvest location and date are the only tools regulators have to trace an illness outbreak back to a contaminated bed. Without proper shell stock records at Rossi, that chain is broken.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms are not removed by rinsing. Combined with improper handwashing technique, which leaves pathogens on hands even when a washing attempt is made, the two violations create a system where contamination moves freely from surface to hand to food.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties is the condition that allows all the others to accumulate. CDC data links establishments without active managerial oversight to three times as many critical violations as those with it. At Rossi on May 20, every other violation on the list existed in that environment.
The Longer Record
The May 20 inspection is not an outlier. State records show Rossi Ristorante has been inspected 33 times and has accumulated 369 total violations across its history.
The day after the May 20 visit, a follow-up inspection on May 21 found five high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. A March 4 inspection earlier this year produced six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The restaurant has now logged high-severity violations in every inspection on record going back to at least March 2025, with the single exception of a clean visit on December 18, 2024.
That December 18 clean inspection is surrounded by violations on both sides. The visit on December 17 found two high-severity violations. The visit on December 16 found four high-severity violations and one intermediate. The pattern is not improving.
Rossi was emergency-closed once before, on October 20, 2022, after inspectors documented rodent activity. It reopened the following day. The current string of high-severity violations, running across at least eight inspections over the past 18 months, has not triggered another closure.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at Rossi Ristorante on May 20, including food not cooked to required temperatures, toxic chemicals improperly stored in the kitchen, and no manager present to oversee any of it.
The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
A follow-up visit the next day found five more high-severity violations still on the record. Rossi Ristorante on SR 54 in New Port Richey remained open through both inspections.