FORT MYERS, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into San Matteo Italian Restaurant and Bar on Village Center Drive and documented that the kitchen was sourcing food from unapproved or unknown suppliers, with no way to trace where it came from or whether it had passed any federal safety inspection.
That was one of seven high-severity violations cited during the April 10 visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source violation means that at least some of what San Matteo served that week bypassed USDA and FDA inspection entirely. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning shellfish, whether oysters, clams, or mussels, could not be traced back to a certified harvesting location.
Food contact surfaces were found not properly cleaned or sanitized, a condition that creates a direct pathway for bacteria to move from one food item to another. Multi-use utensils were also cited for improper cleaning, a separate but related failure that compounds the contamination risk.
Toxic substances were found improperly identified, stored, or used somewhere in the facility. That violation sits alongside the food sourcing and sanitation failures in the same inspection report.
The Human Factor
Three of the seven high-severity violations involved people, not equipment. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, or an inadequate one. At least one employee was found not reporting symptoms of illness. And handwashing technique was cited as improper.
These three violations form a chain. Without a health policy, workers have no formal guidance about when to stay home. Without illness reporting, a sick employee stays on the line. And if handwashing technique is wrong, pathogens move from hands to food even when a worker goes through the motions of washing.
Together, they describe a kitchen where the basic behavioral controls against a Norovirus outbreak were absent on April 10.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is the one that offers the least ability to respond after the fact. When food comes from an unapproved or unknown supplier, there is no chain of custody. If a customer got sick after eating at San Matteo in April, investigators would have no way to trace the ingredient back to a farm, a processor, or a distributor. That is what traceability is for, and it was missing.
The shellfish records violation compounds that problem. Shellfish are among the highest-risk foods in any kitchen because they are often consumed raw or only lightly cooked. State and federal rules require restaurants to keep the original tags from every shipment of oysters, clams, or mussels for 90 days, precisely so that an illness cluster can be traced to a specific harvest location and date. Without those records, that investigation cannot happen.
The illness and handwashing violations are acutely dangerous in combination. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads primarily through infected food handlers. A worker who is symptomatic, has no policy telling them to stay home, and is washing their hands incorrectly is a direct transmission route to every plate that leaves the kitchen.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and utensils extend that risk. Bacterial biofilms can develop on surfaces within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning and resist standard sanitation once established.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not San Matteo's worst on paper, but it arrived in the context of a facility that has accumulated 59 total violations across 14 inspections on record. High-severity violations have appeared in every inspection since May 2023, with the sole exception of that single clean visit.
The January 2026 inspection, just three months before April, produced four high-severity and two intermediate violations. The March 2025 inspection produced five high-severity and one intermediate violation, followed three days later by a callback that still found one high-severity violation remaining. The pattern across 2024 shows two or three high-severity violations at every visit.
San Matteo has never been emergency-closed. No inspection in its record has produced a closure order.
The April 10 visit produced the highest single-day violation count in the facility's documented history, seven high-severity citations in one inspection. The restaurant remained open after inspectors left.