WINTER GARDEN, FL. Inspectors visiting Simply Capri on Ruby Red Place on April 28 found that the restaurant had failed to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish, a violation that means customers could have been served seafood harboring live Anisakis worms or tapeworm larvae without any of the freezing or cooking steps required to kill them.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The April 28 inspection turned up toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly, which inspectors classify as an acute poisoning risk when those chemicals are near food or food prep surfaces. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to use time as a public health control correctly, meaning food was left in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, without the tracking required to ensure it was discarded before bacteria could multiply to harmful levels.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a direct route for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat food. Inspectors also found food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and documented improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were going through the motions of washing hands without the method needed to actually remove pathogens.
The restaurant had no adequate employee health policy. That means there was no written system in place to keep sick workers out of food preparation.
Two intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: single-use items being reused and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction citation is the one that most directly affects anyone who ate fish at Simply Capri before or around the inspection date. When a restaurant serves raw or undercooked fish, state rules require that the fish be frozen to specific temperatures for specific periods before service, a step designed to kill Anisakis roundworms and tapeworm larvae that occur naturally in many species. Skipping that step does not mean every piece of fish is contaminated, but it means there is no verified kill step standing between the customer and a potential parasite infection.
The chemical storage violation compounds the picture. Improperly stored or unlabeled toxic chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and mislabeled containers create conditions where an employee could mistake a chemical for a food-safe substance. Either scenario can cause acute poisoning with symptoms that may not be immediately connected to the meal.
The combination of no employee health policy and improper handwashing technique is particularly significant. A written health policy is the mechanism that requires employees to report symptoms and stay home when ill. Without it, a worker with Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A has no formal barrier between their illness and the food they are preparing. Improper handwashing technique means that even when an employee does wash their hands, the attempt may not remove the pathogens that cause those same illnesses.
Reusing single-use items, the first intermediate violation, introduces contamination from surfaces that were not designed to be sanitized and cannot reliably be made safe for repeated contact with food.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection is not an anomaly. Simply Capri has been inspected ten times in total, and the facility has accumulated 70 violations across that history, with zero emergency closures on record.
The pattern in the prior inspections is consistent. In October 2024, inspectors found 7 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations, an almost identical profile to the April 2026 visit. Six months later, in April 2025, inspectors returned three times in eight days: April 17 produced 9 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, the worst single inspection in the facility's record. Visits on April 25 and May 6 each found 1 high and 1 intermediate violation, suggesting rapid corrective action. But by November 2025, the count had climbed back to 6 high-severity violations.
The only clean inspections in the facility's history were in January 2024, when two consecutive visits found zero high-severity violations and one intermediate between them. Every inspection since has found at least one high-severity violation, and four of the last five inspections have found six or more.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The April 28 inspection at Simply Capri documented seven high-severity violations across categories that include parasite survival, chemical poisoning, disease transmission, and cross-contamination. Inspectors did not issue an emergency closure order.
The restaurant was open for business after the inspection.