OVIEDO, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Tremont on Red Bug Lake Road and found food that had not been cooked to the required minimum temperature, a violation that puts every customer who ordered that day at direct risk of Salmonella or other heat-sensitive pathogens that survive undercooking.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented during the April 3 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The cooking temperature violation was not the only immediate danger documented. Inspectors also cited toxic substances that were improperly identified, stored, or used, a violation that creates risk of chemical contamination reaching food or food-contact surfaces.
Inspectors found no demonstrated allergen awareness among staff. With 32 million Americans living with food allergies and allergic reactions sending tens of thousands to emergency rooms each year, a kitchen where staff cannot identify or communicate allergen risks is a kitchen where an allergic customer has no reliable protection.
The remaining high-severity violations compounded the picture. There was no written employee health policy, meaning no formal mechanism existed to keep sick workers out of the kitchen. Inspectors also documented improper handwashing technique, which means that even when employees went through the motions of washing their hands, the technique was insufficient to remove pathogens. And there was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, leaving vulnerable diners, including elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems, without the information they needed to make safe choices.
The single intermediate violation involved inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment, meaning the facility lacked the mechanical capacity to keep food at safe temperatures.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooking violation is among the most direct routes to a foodborne illness outbreak. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food is served without reaching required internal temperatures, the pathogen is not destroyed, and it goes directly onto a customer's plate. This is not a documentation failure or a paperwork gap. It is a gap between a sick customer and a safe one.
The absence of an allergen awareness policy is similarly acute. Staff who cannot identify which dishes contain common allergens, or who do not know to flag cross-contamination risks, cannot warn a customer with a tree nut or shellfish allergy before that customer orders. The consequences of that failure can include anaphylaxis.
Improper handwashing technique is a category that often gets dismissed as minor, but it is not. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads rapidly through hand-to-food contact. A handwashing attempt that uses the wrong technique, too brief, skipping friction, missing the fingertips, leaves the pathogen load largely intact. Combined with no employee health policy to keep symptomatic workers home, Tremont's kitchen in April had two of the primary transmission routes for Norovirus operating simultaneously.
The inadequate cooling equipment violation adds a third layer. Equipment that cannot hold food at or below 41 degrees allows bacterial growth in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, where organisms like Listeria and E. coli multiply. That equipment failure was not new to this inspection.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. Tremont has 34 inspections on record and 162 total violations across that history. That is an average of nearly five violations per inspection, sustained over years.
The prior inspection record shows a facility that cycles between serious findings and brief clean stretches. In August 2025, inspectors documented eight high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, the heaviest single-inspection toll in the recent record. In December 2024, they found five high-severity violations and one intermediate. In April 2025, three high-severity violations. The June 2025 clean inspection came one day after an emergency closure.
That closure, on June 17, 2025, was ordered because of fly activity. The restaurant reopened the following day after meeting state standards. But the inspection on June 17 that same day, separate from the closure order, still found one high-severity and two intermediate violations. A second inspection on June 17 found one intermediate violation. Clean inspections followed, but by August 2025, the facility was back to eight high-severity violations.
The most recent inspection in the record, from June 2026, found five high-severity and seven intermediate violations, the highest intermediate count in the visible history.
Open for Business
After the April 3 inspection, with six high-severity violations documented and cooling equipment flagged as inadequate, Tremont remained open and continued serving customers.
State rules allow inspectors to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The April findings, including undercooked food, improperly stored toxic substances, and no allergen awareness, did not trigger that threshold.
Two months later, inspectors returned and found five more high-severity violations and seven intermediate ones.