FLORIDA. At the Subway at 830 E Hathaway in Bronson, inspectors found no person in charge present or performing duties, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, six high-severity violations in a single inspection between May and August 2026.
That location was not alone.
Seven of the ten worst-performing Subway locations in Florida during that same 90-day window each accumulated six high-severity violations. The chain operates 876 locations statewide, and its overall pass rate sits at 93.15 percent, with an average of 3.43 violations per inspection across 14,199 inspections on record. But the locations that failed during this period failed comprehensively.
The Violations
The Subway at 1325 San Marco Blvd in Jacksonville drew six high-severity citations, including improper handwashing technique, no allergen awareness demonstrated, inadequate shell stock identification, and toxic substances improperly stored. A Subway serving shellfish without proper traceability records is a notable finding for a chain built around deli-style sandwiches.
The Subway at 6005 SE US Hwy 301 in Hawthorne also accumulated six high-severity violations. Inspectors cited an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, inadequate shell stock identification, toxic chemicals improperly stored, no consumer advisory, and required procedures for specialized processes not followed.
At the Subway at 3424 SW Williston Road in Gainesville, inspectors found food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and two separate chemical storage violations, one for improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals and one for toxic substances improperly identified or used.
The Subway at 7965 SR 50 in Groveland was cited for parasite destruction procedures not followed, food in poor condition, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and toxic chemicals improperly stored.
In Miami, the Subway at 9630 SW 24 Street racked up six high-severity violations including no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing facilities, parasite destruction procedures not followed, and two chemical storage violations.
The Subway at 4410 W 16 Ave in Hialeah was cited for five high-severity violations, among them an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, food in poor condition, and inadequate shell stock identification.
The Subway at 1905 W 35 Street in Hialeah drew five high-severity violations as well, including an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, food in poor condition, and time as a public health control not properly used.
What These Violations Mean
The single most repeated high-severity violation across these ten locations is the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, cited at seven of them. At a chain where customers can order tuna, steak, and other proteins, that advisory exists to warn pregnant women, elderly customers, and people with compromised immune systems that certain foods carry elevated risk. Without it, those customers have no way to make an informed choice at the counter.
Employees not reporting illness symptoms, cited at five locations including Bronson, Hawthorne, Groveland, and both Hialeah locations, represents a direct transmission pathway for Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year. A sick employee building sandwiches behind a counter can expose dozens of customers before the end of a single shift.
The chemical storage violations, appearing in some form at seven of the ten locations, carry a different category of risk. Improperly stored or unlabeled cleaning chemicals placed near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and without proper labeling, employees who encounter an emergency may not know what substance they are handling.
Inadequate handwashing facilities, cited at the Hawthorne, Gainesville, Miami SW 24 Street, and both Hialeah locations, is not a procedural shortcoming. It means the physical infrastructure for basic hygiene was absent or non-functional. Studies consistently show that hand hygiene failures are a primary driver of cross-contamination in food service environments, and when the sink, soap, or drying materials are not available, no amount of employee training closes that gap.
The Pattern Across Locations
What makes this 90-day window notable is not any single location but the geographic spread. The worst-performing Subway locations during this period stretch from Bronson in Levy County to Hialeah in Miami-Dade, with clusters in Gainesville, Groveland, Jacksonville, and Hawthorne between them. These are not neighboring franchises sharing a manager or a supplier. They are independent franchise operations in different markets, accumulating nearly identical violation profiles.
Six high-severity violations in a single inspection is not a borderline result. For context, the chain's statewide average across 14,199 inspections is 3.43 violations per inspection. The locations at the top of this list were running at more than 1.7 times that average in high-severity citations alone, before intermediate violations are counted.
The chain has recorded two emergency closures in Florida this year.
The Longer Record
The statewide inspection record for Subway in Florida is extensive. Across 876 locations, the chain has accumulated 14,199 inspections on record, a figure that reflects years of regulatory contact at individual stores. A chain with that volume of inspections has no shortage of documented history for inspectors to reference when they walk through the door.
The shellfish traceability violations at the Jacksonville, Hawthorne, Hialeah SW 24 Street, and Hialeah W 35 Street locations are worth noting in that context. Shell stock identification records exist so that if a customer becomes ill after eating shellfish, investigators can trace the product back to its harvest location. When those records are absent at a sandwich chain, it suggests either that shellfish is being sourced and served without the required documentation, or that the documentation is not being maintained between inspections.
The Gainesville location's citation for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, combined with food in poor condition and two separate chemical violations, represents the kind of multi-category failure that inspection records tend to show is not a one-visit anomaly. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature violation at a location also cited for unsanitized food contact surfaces compounds the risk considerably.
The Subway at 6005 Collins Ave in Miami drew only one high-severity violation, the missing consumer advisory, and no intermediate violations. It is the outlier in this dataset. Nine of the ten worst-performing locations in the state during this period each had at least two high-severity citations, and seven had six.
The Bronson location's citation for no person in charge present or performing duties remains the starkest single finding in the dataset. CDC data links the absence of active managerial control to three times the rate of critical violations. At a location that also had an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improperly stored chemicals, and unsanitized food contact surfaces, the absence of someone responsible for catching those failures is not a paperwork violation.
