MOUNT DORA, FL. The Texas Roadhouse at 19210 US Hwy 441 had no written employee health policy in place on August 18, meaning the restaurant had no formal mechanism to keep a sick food worker away from customers, according to state inspection records.
That was one of six high-severity violations inspectors documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The absence of an employee health policy compounded the second violation: inspectors also cited the restaurant for employees not reporting symptoms of illness. Together, those two citations describe a restaurant where a worker could show up sick, with no written rule requiring them to report it and no policy governing what would happen if they did.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. At a steakhouse where cutting boards and prep surfaces handle raw meat throughout a service shift, that citation carries direct implications for every plate that left the kitchen that day.
Inspectors also found that time as a public health control was not being properly used. Texas Roadhouse, like many restaurants, serves items held at room temperature for a window of time rather than under refrigeration. When that practice is not tracked and documented correctly, food can remain in the bacterial growth zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, far longer than the rules allow.
Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled somewhere in the facility. And the restaurant was missing a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, the notice that tells customers, particularly pregnant women, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems, that certain menu items carry an elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
The pairing of no health policy and unreported illness symptoms is the combination that public health officials most consistently link to multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, which causes the sudden-onset vomiting and diarrhea that can sweep through a dining room's worth of customers in 24 hours, spreads almost entirely through infected food workers who handle ready-to-eat food. A written health policy is the primary tool for stopping that chain before it starts. Without one, there is no documented standard, no training record, and no mechanism to pull a sick employee off the line.
Unsanitized food contact surfaces operate as a secondary transmission route. A cutting board used for raw chicken that is wiped down but not chemically sanitized between uses can transfer Salmonella or Campylobacter to the next item placed on it. At a restaurant serving the volume Texas Roadhouse handles on a typical evening, a single contaminated surface can affect dozens of plates.
The improperly stored chemicals violation introduces a different category of risk. Chemical contamination does not announce itself the way a stomach virus does. A cleaning agent stored near or above food prep areas, or in an unlabeled container, can enter food without any visible sign. Symptoms of chemical poisoning, including nausea, burning, and respiratory distress, can appear within minutes of ingestion.
The missing consumer advisory is a quieter failure, but it matters for specific customers. Texas Roadhouse menus include steaks cooked to order, and many customers request rare or medium-rare preparations. Without a posted advisory, a diner with a compromised immune system has no way of knowing that the state considers that choice a documented health risk.
The Longer Record
The August 18 inspection was the most violation-heavy in this location's recorded history. The facility has three inspections on file and eleven total violations across all of them, meaning the August visit accounts for eight of the eleven, or nearly three-quarters of every violation ever recorded here.
The prior two inspections told a different story. A January 2026 visit turned up zero high-severity violations and zero intermediate violations. A follow-up inspection six days after the August 18 visit, on August 24, found only one high-severity violation, suggesting the most acute problems were addressed quickly once inspectors identified them.
The location has no prior emergency closures on record.
Open for Business
What the record does not show is any closure on August 18. Despite six high-severity violations, including the dual employee illness citations that regulators classify as among the most direct routes to a customer outbreak, the restaurant continued serving customers that day.
The August 24 follow-up found one remaining high-severity violation. The record does not identify which one.
Six high-severity violations on a Tuesday in August, a dining room full of customers, and a door that stayed open.
