TITUSVILLE, FL. State inspectors visited Salsas Mexican Restaurant at 2510 S Washington Ave on July 13 and documented food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic substances improperly stored, and no written policy requiring sick employees to report their symptoms before handling food. They counted nine high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. Then they left the restaurant open.
The failure to cook food to required minimum temperatures is among the most direct routes to foodborne illness in any kitchen. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A customer who ate underprepared chicken at Salsas that day had no way of knowing it.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection also cited improper parasite destruction procedures. That violation means fish, pork, or wild game served at the restaurant may not have been subjected to the freezing or cooking protocols that kill parasites including Anisakis, tapeworm, and Trichinella. A Mexican restaurant menu routinely includes pork-based dishes.
Toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used. That citation covers cleaning chemicals and pesticides that, if stored near or above food prep surfaces, can contaminate ingredients without any visible sign.
The inspector also found that food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, that employees were using improper handwashing technique, and that wiping cloths were being misused. Each of those violations compounds the others. Hands that are not properly washed, wiped on contaminated cloths, then used on unsanitized prep surfaces create a contamination chain that is difficult to interrupt.
No consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, elderly diners, and young children had no notice that certain menu items carried elevated risk.
The person in charge was either not present or not performing required supervisory duties. That single violation, inspectors and epidemiologists have noted, tends to predict the rest.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy, no illness reporting, and no active managerial oversight is not a paperwork problem. Without a written health policy, employees who come to work with Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A have no formal obligation to disclose their symptoms before handling food. Norovirus alone accounts for an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and a single infected food worker can expose an entire dining room through contact with shared surfaces.
Improper handwashing technique is a distinct violation from simply not washing hands. It means that employees made an attempt to wash but used a method that left pathogens on their skin. Studies have found that improper technique can leave behind as much contamination as no washing at all.
The sewage disposal violation is among the most serious intermediate citations an inspector can write. Improperly disposed wastewater carries fecal bacteria. If that wastewater contacts food prep areas, the contamination risk is immediate and widespread.
Taken together, the July 13 inspection documented a kitchen where food was undercooked, surfaces were not sanitized, employees were not properly washing their hands, parasites may not have been destroyed, and no one in management was enforcing any of it.
The Longer Record
The July 13 inspection was not an outlier. It was the continuation of a pattern that spans at least three years of documented inspections at this address.
Salsas has accumulated 363 total violations across 30 inspections on record. In February 2026, five months before the July visit, inspectors cited 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate ones. In September 2025, the count was 9 high-severity and 4 intermediate. In December 2023, inspectors found 10 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate ones. In August and June of 2023, the tally was 9 high-severity violations each time.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Six of the eight most recent inspections on record produced nine or more high-severity violations each. The two exceptions, in April 2025 and December 2024, produced three high-severity violations apiece. Those lower counts now read less like improvement and more like brief intervals between the heavier inspection results that have defined this location's record.
The categories that keep appearing across inspection dates, including management failures, employee illness policies, and food contact surface sanitation, suggest that corrective action taken after one inspection has not produced lasting change before the next one.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Nine high-severity violations, including undercooking, toxic substance mishandling, parasite destruction failures, and no managerial oversight, did not meet that threshold on July 13.
Salsas Mexican Restaurant on South Washington Avenue in Titusville remained open for business after the inspection concluded.
