FLORIDA. A Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 4108 S University Blvd in Jacksonville drew nine high-severity violations in a single inspection this summer, including citations for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and no written employee health policy in place at a restaurant that serves fried chicken to hundreds of customers daily.
That location was the worst-performing of the 193 Popeyes restaurants operating across Florida during the period from June 8 through September 5, 2026. Inspectors also cited the University Boulevard location for a person in charge not present or not performing duties, inadequate handwashing by food employees, food in poor condition, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
The Worst Locations
The second-worst Jacksonville location, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 2519 at 1324 Dunn Ave, recorded seven high-severity violations. Those included food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and an intermediate citation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal.
The third Jacksonville location in the top five, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 13133 at 45 Duval Station Rd, also drew seven high-severity violations. Inspectors there cited food from an unapproved or unknown source and a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, two violations that do not appear at any other location on this list.
Jacksonville is not the only city with problems. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen #123 at 230 W Mitchell Hammock Rd in Oviedo received six high-severity citations, including inadequate shell stock identification records and a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures. At a fried-chicken chain, citations involving shellfish traceability and parasite controls are unexpected, and inspectors did not elaborate in the available records.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 4901 at 5950 Park Boulevard North in Pinellas Park received four high-severity violations, among them no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff and improper hand and arm washing technique. Inspectors also cited the location for improperly stored sewage and multi-use utensils not properly cleaned.
A Pattern Across the Chain
Across all ten locations flagged this period, the statewide picture for Popeyes is uneven. Of 193 Florida locations, the chain's overall pass rate sits at 79.27 percent, meaning roughly one in five inspections resulted in a failure. The average inspection produces 4.36 violations.
Three Popeyes locations in Florida have been emergency-closed this year. The records do not specify which locations triggered those closures.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces appear as a high-severity citation at five of the ten flagged locations: the University Boulevard Jacksonville site, the Dunn Avenue Jacksonville site, Duval Station Road Jacksonville, Oviedo, and Pinellas Park. Toxic chemical storage violations appear at five locations as well, including St. Petersburg, both Jacksonville locations, Spring Hill, and Soutel Drive Jacksonville.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 140 at 5581 Soutel Dr in Jacksonville drew three high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. The intermediate citations included single-use items improperly reused, improper sanitizing solution or procedures, and improper sewage disposal. That combination, weak sanitizer paired with reused single-use items, means surfaces and tools may carry contamination through an entire shift.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 3191 Hwy 44 in New Smyrna Beach was cited for an employee not reporting illness symptoms and food in poor condition, along with improper sewage disposal and inadequate ventilation.
Popeyes at 4493 Commercial Way in Spring Hill drew citations for food not cooked to minimum temperature, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and improper sewage disposal. The St. Petersburg location at 600 34th St N received three high-severity violations, all involving chemical storage or food contact surface sanitation.
What These Violations Mean
The most dangerous cluster in this inspection period involves illness reporting and handwashing failures, concentrated at the University Boulevard Jacksonville location. When no written employee health policy exists, a sick worker has no formal instruction to stay home or report symptoms. The University Boulevard site was cited for all three related violations at once: no health policy, no illness reporting, and inadequate handwashing. That combination is a direct transmission pathway for Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year and spreads efficiently through food prepared by infected workers.
Undercooking violations at a fried-chicken chain carry specific risk. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and the University Boulevard, Dunn Avenue, and Spring Hill locations were all cited for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Customers have no way to verify internal temperatures at a fast-food counter.
The food from unapproved source citation at the Duval Station Road Jacksonville location is a traceability problem. If a customer gets sick, investigators need to trace the food back through a documented supply chain. Food from an unapproved source has bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections, and there may be no paper trail to follow.
Improper sewage disposal, cited at five locations including Dunn Avenue Jacksonville, Spring Hill, New Smyrna Beach, Soutel Drive Jacksonville, and Pinellas Park, means raw sewage or wastewater is not being removed from the facility correctly. That creates a fecal contamination risk that can spread through a kitchen quickly.
The Longer Record
Across all 193 Florida Popeyes locations, the chain has accumulated 4,527 inspections on record, an average of roughly 23 inspections per location. That volume of history means inspectors have visited most of these kitchens dozens of times, and the violations documented this summer are not first-time findings at unfamiliar sites.
The three Jacksonville locations in the top five worst performers this period share a city and share violation types, including management failures, illness reporting gaps, and temperature control problems. The Dunn Avenue location's intermediate citation for improper sewage disposal, alongside seven high-severity violations, suggests a facility with compounding maintenance and operational failures rather than isolated lapses.
The Oviedo location's citations for inadequate shell stock identification and parasite destruction procedures are harder to explain at a chicken-focused fast-food chain. Both violations presuppose the presence of shellfish or fish requiring parasite controls, and neither violation type appears in the data for most other Popeyes locations reviewed here.
The Merritt Island location at 116 W Merritt Island Cswy had the lightest inspection record of the ten flagged sites, with one high-severity violation for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, and one intermediate citation for single-use items improperly reused. Its relative position at the bottom of this list does not mean the violations are minor: chemical contamination through improperly stored toxic substances is an immediate risk, not a paperwork issue.
The Duval Station Road Jacksonville location remains the most concerning single inspection in this dataset. Food from an unapproved source, parasite destruction procedures not followed, toxic chemicals improperly stored, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and an employee not reporting illness symptoms were all cited in the same visit, at a location that has been inspected as part of a chain with 4,527 inspections on record statewide.
