Iguana Pizza in Florida: A Food Safety Wake-Up Call

When a Viral Pizza Meets Florida Food Law

In early February 2026, a North Palm Beach pizzeria made national headlines for an unlikely creation: iguana pizza. Bucks Coal Fired Pizza owner Frankie Cecere partnered with local trapper Ryan Izquierdo to make what they called the "Florida Man Pizza" (also dubbed the "Everglades Pizza"), using meat from cold-stunned green iguanas collected during South Florida's historic cold snap.

The response was explosive. Over 2,500 requests poured in. Social media lit up. National outlets from CBS Miami to Today.com covered the story. For a brief moment, iguana pizza was the most talked-about food in Florida.

Then the health department showed up.

What followed is a case study in the gap between what's legal for personal consumption and what's legal in a commercial kitchen — a distinction that matters enormously for anyone interested in iguana as food. The enthusiasm was genuine and the entrepreneurial spirit admirable, but the execution needed more homework.

What Happened at Bucks Coal Fired Pizza

The timeline unfolded quickly. When South Florida temperatures plunged into the mid-30s°F in late January 2026, thousands of green iguanas entered cold-stunned torpor and fell from trees across the region. The FWC issued Executive Order 26-03 on January 30, temporarily authorizing collection of cold-stunned iguanas at five designated drop-off locations.

Trapper Ryan Izquierdo saw an opportunity. He collected cold-stunned iguanas and brought them to Bucks Coal Fired Pizza, where owner Frankie Cecere turned them into a specialty pizza topping. The iguana meat was prepared and placed on coal-fired pizzas alongside traditional toppings.

The viral moment hit almost immediately. Social media posts spread rapidly, and within days the pizzeria was fielding thousands of requests. The story captured something genuine: a quirky, only-in-Florida moment that tapped into real curiosity about eating invasive species.

But the Florida Department of Health soon paid a visit. Complaints had been filed. The regulatory reality caught up with the viral moment, and Bucks scaled back production.

The Legal Framework: Why Restaurants Can't Serve Wild-Caught Iguana

This is where the story becomes genuinely educational. Many people — including, apparently, some restaurant operators — assume that because it's legal to kill green iguanas in Florida, it must be legal to serve them in restaurants. That assumption is wrong, and understanding why matters.

The Approved Source Requirement

Florida Department of Health regulations require that all food served in licensed restaurants come from approved, inspected sources. This is a foundational principle of commercial food safety — it's not specific to iguana. The same rules apply to any protein served in a restaurant.

Wild-caught iguana is not from an approved source. There is no USDA inspection framework for iguana meat. There is no approved processing facility. The animal was not raised under controlled conditions, slaughtered at an inspected facility, or processed according to federal food safety standards.

Personal Consumption vs. Commercial Sale

This is the critical distinction that trips people up:

• Personal consumption: You can legally harvest green iguanas on private property (with permission) in Florida and eat them yourself. This falls outside commercial food safety regulation.
• Commercial food service: Serving food to the public through a licensed restaurant requires compliance with an entirely different set of regulations, including sourcing from inspected, approved suppliers.

As attorney Michael Bryan noted in reporting on the incident: "The law states, 'Because we haven't stated you can, we're saying you can't.'" In food safety regulation, silence isn't permission — it's prohibition.

USDA and Interstate Commerce

Federal regulations add another layer. The USDA prohibits uninspected wild game meat in interstate commerce. Even if Florida wanted to create a state-level framework for iguana in restaurants, the federal regulatory structure would still need to be addressed. There is currently no USDA inspection category for iguana meat.

This means there are no federal quality or safety guarantees for consumers purchasing iguana meat from a restaurant. No inspection stamps. No processing standards. No traceability. For a detailed breakdown of how these regulations affect sourcing, see our complete iguana meat sourcing guide.

Food Safety: Why This Isn't Just Bureaucracy

Regulations around commercial food sourcing exist for real safety reasons, and iguana meat illustrates several of them clearly.

Salmonella Risk

Iguanas, like all reptiles, are known carriers of salmonella bacteria. While proper cooking can eliminate salmonella, the challenge with wild-caught iguana is that there is no published research on thermal death time for salmonella specifically in iguana meat. UF/IFAS food safety researchers including Dr. Chad Carr and Dr. Bill Kern recommend cooking iguana meat to an internal temperature of 165°F — the same standard applied to poultry — as a precautionary measure.

In a home kitchen where you control every step of the process, this is manageable. In a high-volume restaurant kitchen processing a novel protein with no established food safety protocols? The risk profile changes significantly.

Parasite and Contaminant Risks

Wild-caught reptiles can carry parasites that require thorough cooking to eliminate. Additionally, wild iguanas have unknown dietary histories — they may have consumed pesticide-treated plants, contaminated water, or other substances that could affect meat safety. Inspected, farmed animals are raised under controlled conditions specifically to minimize these risks.

No Established Processing Standards

For every common meat you buy at a grocery store, there are detailed USDA protocols covering slaughter, processing, storage temperature, handling, and transport. None of these exist for iguana. A restaurant attempting to serve iguana is essentially creating its own food safety protocols from scratch, without regulatory guidance or oversight.

The Bucks Coal Fired Pizza team reportedly attempted to classify the iguana meat under a "catch and cook" health code classification, but this wasn't designed for commercial restaurant service of wild-caught reptiles.

The Social Media Effect: Misinformation Spreads Fast

One of the most instructive aspects of the iguana pizza story is how quickly misinformation spread. As the story went viral, a common narrative emerged: "Iguanas are invasive, you're encouraged to kill them, so of course you can serve them in restaurants."

Each step in that logic contains a kernel of truth but reaches the wrong conclusion:

• "They're invasive" — True. Green iguanas are classified as a Prohibited Species in Florida.
• "You can kill them" — True, with caveats. Humane methods are required, and anti-cruelty laws still apply.
• "So you can sell them as food" — False. The legal framework for killing invasive species is completely separate from the regulatory framework for commercial food safety.

This leap — from "legal to kill" to "legal to sell as food" — is exactly the kind of assumption that Florida's iguana regulations exist to prevent. Understanding these distinctions is essential for anyone interested in iguana meat.

Lessons for Trend-Chasers

The Bucks Coal Fired Pizza incident offers clear lessons for anyone thinking about serving exotic or unconventional proteins in a commercial setting:

• Research regulations before acting. Viral moments don't wait for compliance reviews, but the health department doesn't care about your social media metrics.
• Personal use and commercial use have entirely different legal standards. What you can do in your own kitchen and what you can do in a licensed restaurant are governed by different bodies of law.
• "Nobody told me I couldn't" is not a legal defense. In food safety regulation, you need affirmative permission to serve a novel protein, not just the absence of a specific prohibition.
• Good intentions don't replace regulatory compliance. The desire to reduce invasive species and serve interesting food is genuinely admirable. But skipping the regulatory homework can result in health department visits, potential license revocation, and legal liability.
• Consult with health authorities first. A single phone call to the Florida Department of Health before launching the product could have prevented the entire situation.

What Responsible Iguana Meat Advocacy Looks Like

The interest that the iguana pizza generated was real and significant. Thousands of people wanted to try it. That enthusiasm is a genuine force for positive change — if channeled correctly.

Here's what responsible advocacy for iguana as a food source looks like:

• Support establishing USDA-approved inspection pathways. If there's genuine commercial demand for iguana meat (and the pizza incident suggests there is), the solution is to create a proper regulatory framework — not to work around the existing one.
• Work with regulators, not around them. Engage with the Florida Department of Agriculture, USDA, and local health departments to explore what a legal pathway for commercial iguana meat might look like.
• Prioritize food safety education. Help people understand proper handling, cooking temperatures, and sourcing — whether they're cooking at home or hoping to eventually serve iguana commercially.
• Distinguish between personal and commercial use clearly. If you're sharing iguana recipes or promoting iguana as food, always clarify that home preparation and restaurant service are governed by different rules.

For detailed guidance on safe, legal ways to source iguana meat for personal consumption, see our sourcing guide. For a full breakdown of what's legal and what isn't, visit our Florida iguana law page.

The Bigger Picture: Growing Interest in Iguana as Food

The iguana pizza story didn't happen in a vacuum. It came during the same cold front that drove unprecedented interest in iguana meat across South Florida — the same event covered in our 2026 cold front article. Search interest in iguana recipes, iguana taste, and iguana preparation spiked dramatically during this period.

This growing interest is genuinely positive. Green iguanas cause significant ecological damage in Florida, and creating demand for their removal benefits the environment. Iguana meat is a lean, high-protein food source that has fed Caribbean and Latin American communities for centuries.

But for this interest to translate into lasting, positive change — rather than a series of viral moments followed by health department shutdowns — it needs to be built on a foundation of proper food safety knowledge and regulatory compliance.

The enthusiasm is the easy part. The homework is what separates a passing trend from a legitimate food movement.

Sources

This article draws on reporting from CBS Miami, Today.com, and WFLX; FWC Executive Order 26-03 (January 30, 2026); UF/IFAS food safety guidance from Dr. Chad Carr and Dr. Bill Kern; and Florida Department of Health restaurant regulations. All factual claims about the Bucks Coal Fired Pizza incident are based on published news coverage.