ORANGE PARK, FL. State inspectors walked into Akaya Grill & Sushi on Oakleaf Plantation Parkway on August 24 and left with a citation sheet listing 13 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate ones, including food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, no shellfish traceability records, and toxic chemicals stored improperly near food. The restaurant was not closed.
The shellfish violation is among the most direct risks to customers at a sushi restaurant. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning there was no documentation to trace where the oysters, clams, or other bivalves served at the restaurant came from. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no chain of custody to follow.
What Inspectors Found
The cooking temperature violation stands out at a sushi restaurant that also operates a grill. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food is not brought to required minimum temperatures, that survival is not a theoretical risk, it is a documented pathway to illness.
Inspectors also cited two separate violations related to toxic substances: chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Both were flagged as high severity. Either one in isolation would be notable. Together, they suggest a systemic failure in how the kitchen handles materials that can cause acute poisoning if they contact food.
The third high-severity cluster involves illness and handwashing. Inspectors cited no employee health policy, no system for employees to report illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, and inadequate handwashing facilities. All four violations were logged on the same inspection. A kitchen where workers have no formal obligation to report illness, no written policy governing what happens when they are sick, and no properly functioning handwashing infrastructure is a kitchen where Norovirus can move from one sick employee to dozens of customers before anyone knows it is happening.
Inspectors also noted that no consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked foods. At a sushi restaurant, that advisory is the only warning a pregnant woman, an elderly customer, or an immunocompromised diner receives before ordering raw fish.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and no illness-reporting system is not a paperwork problem. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, and food workers who continue working while sick are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. At Akaya Grill & Sushi, inspectors found both the absence of a written policy and active failure to report symptoms, meaning there was no administrative barrier and no behavioral one between a sick employee and the food being served.
The shellfish traceability violation carries a different kind of risk. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from the water they grow in. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock identification tags, investigators responding to a reported illness cannot determine where the shellfish came from, which harvest area was involved, or whether other restaurants received product from the same contaminated source. The record simply does not exist.
Food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized is the violation that connects everything else. Improperly cleaned cutting boards and prep surfaces transfer bacteria between raw proteins and ready-to-eat food. At a restaurant where cooking temperatures were also flagged as inadequate, that transfer has fewer checkpoints to stop it.
The Longer Record
Akaya Grill & Sushi: Inspection Pattern, 2024-2026
The August 24 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 32 inspections on file for Akaya Grill & Sushi, with 422 total violations documented across that history. The restaurant has accumulated double-digit high-severity violation counts in four of its last six substantive inspections.
The pattern is specific. In February 2025, inspectors found 12 high-severity violations. A follow-up inspection days later showed zero. In March 2026, inspectors found 9 high-severity violations. A follow-up a week later showed zero. The restaurant clears inspections when inspectors return immediately after a bad one, then accumulates serious violations again by the next routine visit.
The facility was emergency-closed once before, in February 2015, for roach activity. It reopened the following day. The current stretch of high-severity inspections has not resulted in another closure.
Four days after the August 24 inspection, inspectors returned and found 7 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate ones still on record.
Akaya Grill & Sushi remained open through all of it.
