FLORIDA. The Chick-fil-A at 326 SE 1st Ave in Florida City drew 7 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate citations in the most recent inspection window, the worst single-location result among the chain's 216 Florida outlets during a 90-day stretch running from July 8 through October 5, 2026.
Inspectors found no employee health policy in place, meaning nothing in writing required workers to report illness before handling food. They also cited the location for an employee actively not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish traceability records, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items, and the person in charge either absent or not performing supervisory duties. An improper sewage or wastewater disposal violation rounded out the intermediate findings.
That is a facility where nearly every foundational food safety system broke down in a single visit.
The Violations Across Florida
The Chick-fil-A at 14020 Lunar Dr in Jacksonville came in second with 5 high-severity violations, including improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, no allergen awareness demonstrated, and missing shellfish identification records.
The Chick-fil-A at 6050 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee matched Jacksonville's high-severity count at 5, with a particularly serious finding: food from an unapproved or unknown source. Inspectors also cited the location for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, missing shellfish records, and improperly stored toxic substances.
Food from an unapproved source at a national chain location is not a paperwork problem. It means some portion of what was being served bypassed federal inspection entirely.
The Chick-fil-A #01918 at 3166 Daniels Rd in Winter Garden was cited for parasite destruction procedures not followed, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, along with two intermediate violations including improper sewage disposal.
The Chick-fil-A at 9500 McKenna Dr in Orlando drew the same food-from-unapproved-source violation as Kissimmee, alongside improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory, no allergen awareness, and two intermediate citations including inadequate cold-holding equipment.
Cold-holding equipment that cannot maintain required temperatures is not a paperwork gap. It is the mechanical condition that allows bacteria to multiply in food before it reaches a customer.
The Chick-fil-A at 4590 W St Rd 46 in Sanford accumulated the most total violations of any location outside Florida City: 4 high-severity and 3 intermediate. Inspectors cited two separate chemical-handling violations, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no allergen awareness, improper sewage disposal, improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, and inadequate ventilation.
The Chick-fil-A at 1541 County Rd 220 in Fleming Island was cited for improper handwashing technique, improperly stored chemicals, no consumer advisory, and no allergen awareness, with an improper sewage disposal intermediate citation as well.
The Chick-fil-A on Sand Lake Road at 7333 W Sand Lake Rd in Orlando drew violations for parasite destruction procedures not followed, missing shellfish identification records, no consumer advisory, and improperly stored toxic substances.
The Chick-fil-A Mandarin at 3280 Oak Bluff Ln in Jacksonville was cited for the person in charge not present or not performing duties, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory, with improperly cleaned multi-use utensils as an intermediate finding.
The Chick-fil-A at 13402 State Road 54 in Odessa drew 3 high-severity violations: improper handwashing technique, parasite destruction procedures not followed, and improperly stored toxic substances.
What These Violations Mean
The most frequently cited high-severity violation across these 10 locations was the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, appearing at 7 of the 10 sites. That advisory exists specifically to warn people whose immune systems are compromised, including the elderly, pregnant women, and young children, that certain menu items carry elevated risk. Without it, those customers have no way to make an informed choice.
The employee illness violations at Florida City, Winter Garden, and Jacksonville Mandarin describe a direct transmission pathway. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads person-to-person through contaminated food preparation. A worker who does not report illness symptoms, and whose employer has no written policy requiring them to do so, can infect dozens of customers before a single complaint is filed.
Food from unapproved sources, documented at both the Kissimmee and Orlando McKenna Drive locations, removes the traceability chain entirely. When a customer gets sick, investigators trace illness back through the supply chain. Food that entered a facility without documentation cannot be traced. If there is an outbreak, the source may never be identified.
The chemical storage violations at Jacksonville Lunar Drive, Winter Garden, Fleming Island, and Sanford are not minor housekeeping issues. Cleaning chemicals stored near or above food preparation surfaces can contaminate food through spills, mislabeling, or improper use. The Sanford location drew two separate chemical-handling violations in a single inspection, one for improperly stored or labeled chemicals and a second for improperly identified or used toxic substances.
The Longer Record
Across 216 Florida locations, Chick-fil-A's inspection database contains 4,072 total inspections on record, an average of roughly 18.8 inspections per location. The chain's statewide pass rate is 95.83 percent, and the average violation count per inspection is 3.43. Neither number is alarming on its own. The 90-day window examined here shows where that average breaks down.
The chain recorded zero emergency closures in Florida this year. That is a meaningful distinction. None of the 10 locations flagged in this period reached the threshold that forces an immediate shutdown. But the absence of a closure order does not mean the violations were minor. Seven high-severity citations at a single location, including no employee health policy and active non-reporting of illness, describes a facility operating without the most basic disease-prevention infrastructure.
The pattern across locations points to two recurring failure categories: chemical handling and consumer advisories. Nine of the 10 locations drew at least one violation in one of those two categories. That kind of consistency across geographically dispersed locations suggests a training or compliance gap that is not isolated to one manager or one market.
The Florida City location's combination of no person in charge, no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness, and improper handwashing technique in a single inspection is the kind of layered failure that CDC data associates with a threefold increase in critical violations. As of the inspection data covering this 90-day window, that location had drawn 7 high-severity citations without triggering an emergency closure order.
