FLORIDA. The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 2350 at 4108 S. University Blvd. in Jacksonville accumulated nine high-severity violations and three intermediate violations during the 90-day window between June 11 and September 8, 2026, making it the worst-performing Popeyes location in Florida by citation count during that period.
Inspectors cited the University Boulevard location for food not cooked to required minimum temperature, a finding with direct consequences at a chain that specializes in fried chicken. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and undercooked chicken is a leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks.
The same location had no written employee health policy and no system for employees to report illness symptoms. It also drew a citation for inadequate handwashing and for food in poor condition, mislabeled or adulterated.
No person in charge was present or performing duties when inspectors arrived.
The Violations Across Florida
Two other Jacksonville locations also drew seven high-severity violations each during the same period. The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 2519 at 1324 Dunn Ave. was cited for food not cooked to required temperature, no system for employees to report illness symptoms, no person in charge present, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and improper sewage or wastewater disposal, among other findings.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 13133 at 45 Duval Station Rd. added a finding not seen at the other two Jacksonville locations: food from an unapproved or unknown source. Food from unapproved sources bypasses federal safety inspections and cannot be traced if customers become ill. Inspectors at that location also cited a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, a sewage disposal violation, and improper storage of toxic chemicals.
Three Jacksonville Popeyes locations in a single 90-day window, each with seven or more high-severity violations.
Outside Jacksonville, the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 4901 at 5950 Park Blvd. North in Pinellas Park drew four high-severity violations, including improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, improper handwashing technique, no allergen awareness demonstrated, and inadequate shellfish traceability records. Allergen failures are particularly acute at fast food locations, where a customer's disclosure of a food allergy depends entirely on a front-line employee knowing which ingredients are in which menu items.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Operated by Tice at 4493 Commercial Way in Spring Hill was cited for food not cooked to required minimum temperature, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and improper sewage disposal.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Operated by Tice at 600 34th St. N. in St. Petersburg drew three high-severity violations, all chemical-related: improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored or used.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 140 at 5581 Soutel Dr. in Jacksonville added a citation for time as a public health control not properly used, meaning food was held in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, without the required time tracking that would establish when it had to be discarded.
What These Violations Mean
The most common high-severity violation across Florida Popeyes locations this period was improperly cleaned or sanitized food contact surfaces, cited at the University Boulevard Jacksonville location, the Dunn Avenue Jacksonville location, Duval Station Road Jacksonville, Soutel Drive Jacksonville, Pinellas Park, St. Petersburg, and Daytona Beach. Surfaces that appear clean can carry bacterial contamination invisible to the naked eye. At a fried chicken chain, where raw poultry moves across prep surfaces before cooking, cross-contamination from inadequately sanitized surfaces is a direct pathway for Salmonella and Campylobacter to reach finished food.
The management failure citations at two Jacksonville locations, University Boulevard and Dunn Avenue, carry a specific weight. CDC data links the absence of active managerial control to three times the rate of critical violations at food establishments. A person in charge is not just an administrative requirement. That person is responsible for monitoring food temperatures, ensuring employees wash their hands, verifying that sick workers stay home. When that function is absent, the other violations tend to cluster.
The employee illness findings at University Boulevard Jacksonville, Dunn Avenue Jacksonville, Duval Station Road Jacksonville, and New Smyrna Beach are acutely dangerous in combination with the undercooked food citations. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, is shed by infected food workers before symptoms fully appear. A facility with no illness reporting policy and undercooked food on the same inspection report presents two failure points simultaneously.
Improper sewage disposal, cited at Dunn Avenue Jacksonville, Duval Station Road Jacksonville, Soutel Drive Jacksonville, Pinellas Park, New Smyrna Beach, and Daytona Beach, creates risk of fecal contamination throughout the kitchen. Six locations in one chain in one 90-day window with the same sewage citation is not a coincidence of geography. It is a pattern.
The Longer Record
Florida's 193 Popeyes locations have accumulated 4,530 inspections on record statewide, an average that reflects years of regulatory contact across the chain. The statewide pass rate of 79.27 percent means roughly one in five Popeyes inspections in Florida results in a failed outcome. The average of 4.36 violations per inspection is the baseline against which the worst-performing locations stand out.
The chain has seen three emergency closures in Florida in 2026 alone. Emergency closures, which require a state inspector to determine that a facility poses an immediate threat to public health, are not routine. Three in a single year at one chain across 193 locations indicates that the compliance failures at individual locations have, on at least three occasions, reached the threshold of acute public danger.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Operated by Tice at 3191 Hwy. 44 in New Smyrna Beach and the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 101 N. Ridgewood Ave. in Daytona Beach each drew violations during this period in addition to the locations already detailed. The New Smyrna Beach location was cited for food in poor condition, no employee illness reporting, and improper sewage disposal. The Daytona Beach location drew citations for improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory for undercooked foods, and four intermediate violations including sewage disposal and equipment in poor repair.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 116 W. Merritt Island Cswy. in Merritt Island drew the fewest violations of any location in this review, one high-severity and one intermediate, but the high-severity finding was toxic substances improperly identified, stored or used, the same category that appeared at St. Petersburg, Spring Hill, Dunn Avenue Jacksonville, and Duval Station Road Jacksonville during the same 90-day window.
The Statewide Pattern
Toxic chemical storage violations appeared at six of the ten worst-performing Popeyes locations reviewed here. At a fast food kitchen, chemicals used for cleaning and sanitizing are stored in proximity to food preparation surfaces. A mislabeled container or improperly stored bottle of sanitizer or degreaser near food does not require a worst-case scenario to cause harm. It only requires one employee to reach for the wrong bottle.
The consumer advisory citation appeared at five locations: University Boulevard Jacksonville, Dunn Avenue Jacksonville, Duval Station Road Jacksonville, New Smyrna Beach, and Daytona Beach. A consumer advisory is required when a menu item is served raw or undercooked. At four of those five locations, inspectors also cited food not cooked to required temperature. The advisory is supposed to inform customers when food may not be fully cooked. The undercooked food citation documents that it wasn't.
Three of the ten worst-performing locations carry the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Operated by Tice name, covering St. Petersburg, Spring Hill, and New Smyrna Beach. All three drew high-severity violations during this review period. The Tice-operated St. Petersburg location drew three high-severity citations with no intermediate violations at all, a profile that suggests the most serious findings were present without the lower-level housekeeping violations that often accompany them.
At the University Boulevard Jacksonville location, inspectors found nine high-severity violations and documented no person in charge on the premises. That location has not publicly disclosed any corrective action in the inspection record reviewed here.
