FLORIDA. A Popeyes on South University Boulevard in Jacksonville drew 9 high-severity violations in a single inspection this summer, including food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, no written employee health policy, and no person in charge present or performing duties at the time of the visit.
That location was the worst-performing Popeyes in Florida during the 90-day window from June 6 to September 3, 2026. But it was not alone.
State inspection records show that nine of the chain's Florida locations accumulated high-severity violations during that stretch, with findings ranging from improperly stored toxic chemicals to employees not reporting symptoms of illness to sewage disposal problems at multiple sites.
The Violations
The South University Boulevard location's inspection report reads like a compounding list of oversight failures. Inspectors cited the restaurant for no employee health policy, for employees not reporting illness symptoms, for inadequate handwashing, for food in poor condition or mislabeled, for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and for no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A person in charge was not present or not performing duties.
That last citation matters in context: state data shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of supervised ones.
The Popeyes at 45 Duval Station Road in Jacksonville was close behind with 7 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. Inspectors there flagged food from an unapproved or unknown source, a violation that means the food bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspection entirely. That location was also cited for parasite destruction procedures not followed, for improperly stored toxic chemicals, and for improper sewage or wastewater disposal.
The Popeyes at 1324 Dunn Avenue in Jacksonville matched Duval Station Road with 7 high-severity violations. Its inspection included the same absent-manager finding as the South University location, along with employees not reporting illness symptoms, food not cooked to minimum temperature, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and improper sewage disposal.
Three Jacksonville Popeyes locations in a single 90-day window, each with 7 or more high-severity violations.
The Popeyes at 230 West Mitchell Hammock Road in Oviedo drew 6 high-severity violations, including improper handwashing technique, parasite destruction procedures not followed, inadequate shell stock identification, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. The Popeyes at 5950 Park Boulevard North in Pinellas Park was cited for 4 high-severity violations, including no allergen awareness demonstrated and inadequate shell stock identification records.
A Pattern Across Operators
Several of the flagged locations are operated under the "Tice" franchise banner. The Tice-operated location at 600 34th Street North in St. Petersburg drew 3 high-severity violations, all chemical-related: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
The Tice-operated location at 4493 Commercial Way in Spring Hill was cited for food not cooked to required minimum temperature, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. It also had an intermediate violation for improper sewage disposal.
The Tice-operated location at 3191 Highway 44 in New Smyrna Beach drew citations for an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food in poor condition or mislabeled, no consumer advisory, and improper sewage disposal.
The Popeyes at 5581 Soutel Drive in Jacksonville rounded out the list with 3 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, including food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, time as a public health control not properly used, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and single-use items improperly reused.
What These Violations Mean
The most common high-severity finding across these locations was food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, which appeared at six of the nine sites. Surfaces that are not properly sanitized between uses become direct transfer points for bacteria including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. At a fried chicken chain where raw poultry moves through prep surfaces constantly, that violation carries specific weight.
Three locations, including both high-violation Jacksonville sites, were cited for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a restaurant whose core product is fried chicken, an undercooking violation is not incidental.
The employee illness findings at the South University Boulevard location, Duval Station Road, Dunn Avenue, and New Smyrna Beach are among the most acute risks in the data. When no written health policy exists and employees are not required to report symptoms, a sick worker can transmit Norovirus to hundreds of customers before anyone knows there is a problem. Norovirus causes an estimated 20 million cases of illness in the United States each year, and food workers are among its most efficient vectors.
The food from unapproved sources citation at the Duval Station Road location is a different category of concern. When food enters a facility outside the regulated supply chain, there is no traceability if someone becomes ill. Investigators cannot identify the source, cannot issue a recall, and cannot determine how many customers were exposed.
The Longer Record
Across all 193 Florida Popeyes locations, state records show 4,525 inspections on file, an average of more than 23 inspections per location. The chain's statewide pass rate of 79.27 percent means roughly one in five inspections results in a failure finding. The average of 4.36 violations per inspection is a baseline against which the summer's worst performers stand out sharply.
The three Jacksonville locations that dominated the worst-performers list collectively account for a significant share of the period's high-severity citations. Jacksonville's Dunn Avenue and South University Boulevard locations each had inspection records that include the full range of management failure indicators, from absent supervisors to missing health policies to temperature violations, suggesting these are not isolated incidents but patterns of operational gaps.
The Popeyes at 116 West Merritt Island Causeway in Merritt Island drew only 1 high-severity violation during the period, for toxic substances improperly stored, and 1 intermediate citation. That is a markedly different profile from the Jacksonville cluster, and it illustrates how wide the gap is between the chain's best and worst performers within the same state.
The chain has recorded 3 emergency closures in Florida in 2026. The summer inspection data does not specify which locations those closures affected, but the concentration of management failure violations at the Jacksonville South University Boulevard location, including no person in charge, no health policy, and food not cooked to temperature, represents the kind of compounding failure profile that precedes emergency action at other facilities.
The Duval Station Road location's food from unapproved source citation remains the single most unresolved fact in this data set. State records show the violation was cited. There is no public record of where that food came from.
