FLORIDA. At the KFC at 10770 Beach Blvd. in Jacksonville, state inspectors documented six high-severity violations in a single visit between June 20 and September 17, 2026, including toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly, food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and a failure by at least one employee to report symptoms of illness.
That last violation is the kind regulators treat as a direct outbreak risk. A sick food worker who keeps coming in and doesn't report symptoms is the primary transmission route for norovirus, which sickens an estimated 20 million Americans each year.
The Beach Boulevard location also drew citations for inadequate shellfish identification records, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, and improper sewage or wastewater disposal. Three intermediate violations accompanied the six high-severity ones.
The Violations
Tied with Beach Boulevard for the highest raw violation count is the KFC at 14405 Monte Vista Rd. in Groveland, which recorded six high-severity and four intermediate violations. Inspectors there cited food in poor condition or adulterated, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, time not properly used as a public health control, inadequate shellfish identification records, and toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly. Improper sewage disposal and inadequate sanitizing procedures rounded out the intermediate findings.
The KFC at 1146 Dunn Ave. in Jacksonville drew five high-severity violations, including two separate chemical storage citations: one for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and a second for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Inspectors also documented no written employee health policy, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
The KFC at 8201 Florida Ave. in Tampa also reached five high-severity violations. Among them: improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition or adulterated, failure to follow required procedures for specialized processes, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and no consumer advisory. Multi-use utensils that were not properly cleaned and equipment in poor repair completed the inspection record.
At the KFC at 7276 103rd St. in Jacksonville, inspectors found four high-severity violations including improper handwashing technique, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. Improper sewage disposal and inadequate ventilation were also cited.
The KFC/Taco Bell at 1809 US Hwy 1 in Sebastian drew four high-severity violations, two of them chemical-related: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Food contact surfaces and a missing consumer advisory were also flagged.
The KFC at 33420 US Hwy 19 N in Palm Harbor recorded four high-severity violations as well, including parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. Improper sewage disposal and inadequate ventilation were cited as intermediate violations.
The KFC at 17 Blanding Blvd. in Orange Park drew one high-severity violation for required procedures for specialized processes not followed, alongside two intermediate citations for single-use items being reused and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
The KFC/Taco Bell at 5367 Ehrlich Rd. in Tampa received one high-severity citation, for no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, with no intermediate violations. The KFC at 11975 SW 152nd St. in Miami drew one high-severity violation for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, plus one intermediate citation for inadequate ventilation.
What These Violations Mean
The most frequently cited high-severity violation across these ten locations is toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, appearing at seven of the ten facilities. When cleaning agents, sanitizers, or pesticides are stored near or above food, or when containers are mislabeled, the risk is acute poisoning through direct contamination of food or food-contact surfaces. It is not a paperwork problem.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cited at six locations including Beach Boulevard, Groveland, Dunn Avenue, 103rd Street, Sebastian, and Palm Harbor, create a direct bacterial transfer route. Surfaces that look clean but have not been properly sanitized can carry salmonella, E. coli, and listeria from one food item to the next. At a fried chicken chain, where raw poultry moves through preparation areas constantly, that risk is not abstract.
The shellfish identification violations at both Beach Boulevard and Groveland are worth pausing on. KFC does not serve oysters or clams on its standard menu. When shellfish traceability records are missing at a location that is not expected to be handling shellfish, it raises questions about what is being sourced, from where, and whether there is any record to follow if someone gets sick.
The employee illness reporting failure at Beach Boulevard and the absence of a written employee health policy at Dunn Avenue represent the same underlying gap from two directions. One location has a policy that workers are not following. The other has no policy at all. In both cases, a sick employee is the most likely vector for a norovirus or hepatitis A outbreak that would affect dozens of customers before the source is identified.
The Longer Record
Across all 238 Florida KFC locations, the chain has accumulated 5,586 inspections on record, an average of more than 23 inspections per location. The statewide pass rate sits at 89.92 percent, and the average inspection yields 4.71 violations. Two locations have been emergency-closed this year.
The three Jacksonville locations in this report tell a compressed story of a city where multiple KFC franchises are underperforming simultaneously. The Beach Boulevard, Dunn Avenue, and 103rd Street locations each generated high-severity findings in the same 90-day window, with chemical storage problems and food contact surface failures appearing across all three. Three separate inspections, three separate addresses, the same core failures.
The Groveland location on Monte Vista Road matched Beach Boulevard's violation count and added a time-as-public-health-control citation, meaning food was held in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, without the documentation required to justify that practice. Combined with adulterated food and missing shellfish records, the Groveland inspection record describes a kitchen operating without several basic safety controls in place at once.
The Tampa locations present a split picture. The Florida Avenue location accumulated five high-severity violations including a handwashing technique failure, while the Ehrlich Road location drew only one high-severity citation and no intermediates. Both are in the same city, under the same brand standards, inspected in the same 90-day window. The gap between them is not explained by the data.
The Beach Boulevard location's employee illness reporting failure remains the single most unresolved finding in this inspection cycle. No follow-up closure is recorded in the data, and the violation category carries no corrective action timeline on its face.
