BOCA RATON, FL. State inspectors walked into Santo's Modern American Buffet and Sushi on North Federal Highway on June 24, 2026, and found shellfish on the premises with no identification records, no way to trace where they came from or when, no way to find the source if a customer got sick.
That was one of eight high-severity violations documented at the 3400 N. Federal Highway restaurant in a single inspection. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish violation sits at the center of this inspection because the restaurant serves sushi and operates as a buffet, meaning raw or lightly cooked shellfish is served to large numbers of customers in a single sitting. Without shell stock tags or receiving records, there is no way to identify the harvest location, the dealer, or the date if an oyster or clam makes someone ill.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for having no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. At a sushi buffet, that means customers, including elderly diners, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems, had no written notice that certain items carry elevated risk.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils had not been properly cleaned either. Both violations were documented on the same visit, meaning surfaces and tools used in food preparation were potentially transferring bacteria from one item to the next throughout service.
The handwashing findings compounded the picture. Inspectors found both that handwashing facilities were inadequate and that employees observed were not washing their hands and arms correctly. Proper technique is the basic last line of defense against pathogen transfer. At Santo's on June 24, the facilities and the technique were both flagged as deficient.
No person in charge was present or performing duties. No written employee health policy was in place. And employees were not reporting symptoms of illness.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and no illness reporting is not a paperwork problem. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million infections in the United States each year, spreads primarily through infected food workers who do not know they are required to report symptoms or stay home. At a buffet, where one worker may handle food that reaches dozens of customers in an hour, that transmission pathway is especially direct.
The shellfish traceability violation carries a different kind of risk. Shellfish harvested from contaminated waters can carry Vibrio bacteria or hepatitis A. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock tags, investigators responding to an illness outbreak cannot trace the product back to its source, cannot issue a recall, and cannot warn other restaurants that may have received shellfish from the same supplier.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces develop bacterial biofilms, layers of bacteria that adhere to surfaces and resist ordinary cleaning. At a sushi buffet where raw fish is handled on cutting surfaces throughout the day, contaminated surfaces become a continuous source of cross-contamination across every item prepared on them.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties ties all of these violations together. CDC data shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged management. At Santo's, on June 24, the management failure was itself a documented violation.
The Longer Record
The June 2026 inspection was not an aberration. Santo's has 22 inspections on record and 147 total violations across its history, and the pattern in those records is consistent.
In October 2024, inspectors cited the restaurant for 8 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations, an identical high-severity count to the June 2026 visit. In February 2023, the restaurant drew 7 high-severity violations. In July 2023, inspectors returned twice within ten days, finding 6 high-severity violations on July 10 and 3 high-severity violations on July 20.
The summer of 2025 showed the same shape. Inspectors visited in July 2025 twice, finding 3 high-severity violations on July 22 and 6 high-severity violations the following day, July 21. A follow-up visit in August 2025 found 4 high-severity violations.
Santo's has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. The June 24, 2026 inspection, with 8 high-severity violations including untraceable shellfish, unposted raw food advisories, and no person in charge, did not change that.
The restaurant remained open.
