There's a certain cosmic irony in a place called Fitrition — a Bayside health food spot built around the promise of clean living, fresh smoothies, and feeling your best — racking up a string of pest and sanitation violations that would make any nutrition-minded regular put down their acai bowl. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene paid a visit to the shop's original location on March 21, 2026, and left with enough to slap a "Grade Pending" sign in the window and a 19-point violation tally on the books.
What Inspectors Found
According to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, inspectors cited three violations during the March 21 visit to the Francis Lewis Boulevard location. The most eyebrow-raising: filth flies and other food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies — a category that includes everything from house flies to fruit flies and drain flies — detected in the establishment's food and non-food areas. Inspectors also flagged that the space was not free of harborage conditions conducive to rodents, insects, or other pests, and that no one on the food operations management team held a valid Food Protection Certificate.
A 19-point score automatically triggers a "Grade Pending" designation under the city's system, meaning Fitrition must now await a reinspection before a letter grade is posted. As explained by M&M Pest Control, the DOHMH uses a points-based framework in which pest-related violations carry a minimum of five points each and can escalate significantly depending on the severity of the infestation.
A Pattern That Predates the Latest Visit
This is not the first time Fitrition's Bayside Plaza outpost has been in the health department's crosshairs. The March inspection is actually the fourth in a row to result in violations — a streak that stretches back to at least December 2023, all documented by NYC DOHMH.
In December 2025, inspectors returned and found 17 points in violations, including flies in food and non-food areas (again), food contact surfaces not properly washed and sanitized after each use, continued pest-harborage conditions, and non-food contact surfaces or equipment made of unacceptable materials or not kept clean. Before that, an August 2024 inspection turned up 7 points — food contact surface sanitation issues and unclean non-food contact equipment — suggesting the establishment briefly improved but never fully cleared the slate.
The low point of the recent history came in December 2023, when inspectors recorded 26 points and the violations escalated notably. The report cited evidence of rats or live rats in the establishment's food or non-food areas — a finding that on its own constitutes a critical, public-health-hazard-level violation according to M&M Pest Control. That same inspection also flagged adulterated or cross-contaminated food, food and supplies not protected from contamination, ongoing pest harborage conditions, and — perhaps more of a fine-magnet than a health threat — the providing of single-use, non-compostable plastic straws to customers without a request (a no-no under NYC's plastic straw rules).
The Bigger Picture for NYC Health Inspections
Fitrition is hardly alone in struggling with pest control. As Mashed reported in a 2025 roundup of notable NYC restaurant closures, pest-related violations — flies, roaches, mice, and rats — are among the most commonly cited reasons establishments receive failing scores or temporary shutdowns across the five boroughs. What makes Fitrition's situation stand out is the specific contrast with its brand identity: the shop at 32-55 Francis Lewis Blvd. was founded in November 2016 by high school friends Michael Beringer and Michael Portannese, along with Portannese's wife Daniela, expressly to serve as a health-forward alternative to typical supplement shops, according to Fitrition's own website.
The Bayside Plaza location was the first of what has since grown into a small regional chain, with additional locations in Astoria, Melville, New Hyde Park, Westwood (NJ), and Hawthorne (NJ), per the company's website. All juices and smoothies are marketed as all-natural with no added sugar or syrups — making the repeated presence of flies in food areas a particularly uncomfortable brand story for the Bayside flagship.
What Comes Next
Under the DOHMH's grading system, as outlined by EHA Consulting Group, a reinspection is scheduled no sooner than seven days after the initial failing score. If Fitrition scores between 14 and 27 points on that reinspection, it receives a "B" grade; 28 or more points earns a "C." A score of 13 or fewer restores an "A." The current "Grade Pending" sign will remain posted until that determination is made.
Customers can check Fitrition's current inspection status — and that of any of the city's roughly 29,000 food service establishments — through the city's NYC Department of Health ABCEats lookup tool. The Bayside location is listed under permit number 50086688.
