FLORIDA. Inspectors visiting Subway #47295 at 830 E Hathaway in Bronson found six high-severity violations in a single inspection this spring, including an employee failing to report illness symptoms, food in poor or adulterated condition, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and toxic chemicals stored without proper labeling. No person in charge was present or performing duties during the visit. The Bronson location drew the most alarming single-inspection profile among the chain's Florida outlets reviewed between April 26 and July 24, 2026.
That inspection was not an isolated event. Across Florida, five other Subway locations also accumulated six high-severity violations each during the same 90-day window, and the chain's 876 Florida stores collectively averaged 3.43 violations per inspection over their full inspection histories.
The Violations
The Bronson store's combination of violations reads as a near-complete breakdown of basic food safety management. No manager present. An employee not reporting illness. Adulterated or mislabeled food. Contaminated food contact surfaces. Toxic chemicals without proper labeling. And no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items.
Subway #60865 at 1325 San Marco Blvd in Jacksonville matched the Bronson location's high-severity count, drawing six of its own. Inspectors there cited improper handwashing technique, inadequate shellfish identification records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, no consumer advisory, improperly stored toxic substances, and no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff.
Subway #29413 at 7965 SR 50 in Groveland also reached six high-severity violations, including one that is rare in sandwich chain inspections: parasite destruction procedures not followed. That citation, combined with an employee illness reporting failure and food in poor condition, made the Groveland location's inspection profile notably serious.
The Subway at 3424 SW Williston Road in Gainesville drew six high-severity violations as well, two of them involving toxic chemicals, one involving food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and one for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned. The Gainesville location also had two separate chemical-related citations in the same inspection, one for improper storage and one for improper identification and use.
What Inspectors Found Across the Chain
The most frequently cited high-severity violation across all ten locations reviewed was the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Nine of the ten locations received that citation.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces appeared at six locations: Bronson, Jacksonville, Groveland, Gainesville, Clearwater, and the Subway 21218 at 13769 SW 152 St in Miami. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and slicers that carry residual bacteria from one food to the next are the mechanism behind that violation.
Employee illness reporting failures turned up at three separate locations: Bronson, Groveland, and the Subway at 1905 W 35 St in Hialeah. The Hialeah store also had inadequate handwashing facilities, meaning employees lacked the physical infrastructure to wash their hands properly even if they tried.
Subway 3956 at 1895 N Highland Ave in Clearwater carried a violation that appeared at no other location in this review: no approved potable water supply. That citation means inspectors documented that the water used in food preparation did not come from an approved, tested source.
The Miami location at SW 152 St had no employee health policy on file and no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff, along with an intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal. Subway #26296 at 4410 W 16 Ave in Hialeah and the Subway at 11865 SW 26 St in Miami both drew shellfish traceability violations, a citation that raises questions about what Subway locations in Miami are serving that involves shellfish and whether the sourcing records exist to trace it.
What These Violations Mean
The consumer advisory violation, the most common citation across these locations, is not a paperwork technicality. Without a posted advisory, customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or managing a chronic illness have no way to know that a menu item carries elevated risk. Nine of the ten locations reviewed failed to provide that disclosure.
The employee illness reporting failures at Bronson, Groveland, and Hialeah represent a more direct transmission risk. Norovirus spreads person-to-person through contaminated food, and a single sick worker handling sandwich ingredients across a full shift can expose dozens of customers before any symptom is visible to management. The Bronson location compounded that risk by having no manager present or performing duties during the inspection, the condition inspectors flag when no one with authority over food safety decisions is on the floor.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cited at six locations, are the mechanism by which bacteria moves from raw protein to ready-to-eat food. At a sandwich chain, the prep surface is the product. Residue left on a cutting board or slicer from one customer's order transfers directly to the next.
The toxic chemical violations at Bronson, Groveland, Gainesville, Clearwater, and the Miami SW 26 St location describe cleaning and sanitizing chemicals stored near or above food, or without labels identifying their contents. A mislabeled chemical used at the wrong concentration, or stored where it can drip onto food prep surfaces, creates a poisoning risk that is immediate rather than cumulative.
The Longer Record
Statewide, Florida's 876 Subway locations carry a combined 14,165 inspections on record, a volume that reflects decades of regulatory scrutiny across a chain that has operated in the state for generations. The chain's overall pass rate of 93.26 percent means roughly 1 in 14 inspections results in a failure, and the 3.43 average violations per inspection gives a baseline against which this quarter's worst performers can be measured.
The locations reviewed here are not new to the inspection system. The Bronson location, with its six high-severity findings and absent manager, sits within a franchise network that inspectors have visited thousands of times across the state. The pattern of violations at Bronson, including the combination of no management presence and an employee illness reporting failure, is the exact scenario the CDC identifies as a driver of multi-victim outbreaks.
The two Hialeah locations tell a related story. Both the W 35 St store and the W 16 Ave store drew inadequate handwashing facilities as a high-severity violation. That citation requires inspectors to document that the physical infrastructure for hand hygiene, functioning sinks, accessible soap, proper drainage, is not in place. Two stores in the same city, under the same chain, with the same structural failure.
The chain recorded one emergency closure in Florida this year. The ten locations reviewed here, four of them with six high-severity violations each, remained open after their inspections. The Clearwater location, cited for having no approved potable water supply, a violation with no ambiguity about what water is used to make food, did not appear on the closure list.
