DAYTONA BEACH, FL. Inspectors visiting AB Pho and Deli at 312 S Peninsula Drive on July 28 found food coming from unapproved or unknown sources, a violation that means the ingredients on customers' plates had bypassed every federal safety checkpoint designed to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens. The restaurant was not closed.
That single finding was one of nine high-severity violations documented in a single inspection. State inspectors also cited two intermediate violations, bringing the total to eleven in one visit.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection documented a failure at nearly every layer of food safety. No person in charge was present or performing duties, a condition that state and federal data consistently links to higher rates of critical violations throughout a facility.
Inspectors also found no written employee health policy and documented that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Together, those two violations remove the primary barrier between a sick food worker and a customer's bowl of soup.
Shellfish traceability records were inadequate, meaning inspectors could not verify where the restaurant's oysters, clams, or mussels originated. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food areas.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked menu items, leaving customers with no notice that certain dishes carry elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation is not a paperwork problem. When ingredients enter a kitchen outside the licensed supply chain, there is no inspection record, no lot number, and no way to trace an outbreak back to its origin if customers fall ill. The USDA and FDA inspection systems exist precisely to catch contamination before food reaches a restaurant. Bypassing them removes that filter entirely.
The combination of no health policy and no symptom reporting at AB Pho and Deli is particularly acute. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads most efficiently through food workers who handle food while symptomatic. A written health policy is the mechanism that tells workers to stay home. Without one, and without a reporting requirement, there is no system in place to interrupt that transmission route.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk. Studies show that incorrect technique, even when a worker does approach a sink, leaves enough pathogens on hands to contaminate food surfaces. At AB Pho and Deli, inspectors found both the technique and the policy infrastructure missing on the same visit.
Improperly stored toxic chemicals near food areas represent a separate and immediate hazard. Mislabeled or misplaced cleaning agents can contaminate food directly, and the resulting poisoning can be acute rather than gradual.
The Longer Record
AB Pho and Deli has three inspections on record. Those three visits have produced 39 total violations.
The trajectory is not improving. The restaurant's earliest inspection on record, in March 2026, turned up 2 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations, a relatively contained finding. By July 28, that number had climbed to 9 high-severity violations in a single visit.
The day after the July 28 inspection, a follow-up visit on July 29 found 7 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate, meaning that after a day of awareness that inspectors had documented nine serious problems, seven high-severity violations remained. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Three inspections in roughly four months is itself a signal. Facilities that accumulate violations at this rate often draw increased scrutiny from the state. Whether that scrutiny has produced improvement at this address is not supported by the data on record.
Still Open
Florida law gives inspectors the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Nine high-severity violations at AB Pho and Deli on July 28 did not meet that threshold, at least as inspectors assessed it that day.
The violations documented, including food from unknown sources, no illness reporting system, improper handwashing, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and chemicals stored near food, were serious enough to record but not, in the state's judgment, serious enough to lock the doors.
AB Pho and Deli at 312 S Peninsula Drive remained open for business after the inspection concluded.
