BAY COUNTY, FL. An ice cream shop on Panama City Beach was cited for pulling food from unapproved sources, storing toxic chemicals improperly, and operating without anyone in charge, all in the same inspection week that 11 other Bay County facilities each racked up three or more high-severity violations.
State inspectors completed 34 inspections across 31 facilities between July 22 and July 28, 2026. Twelve of those facilities drew two or more high-severity citations. The week's total: 46 high-severity violations spread across the county's busiest tourist corridor.
The Worst of the Week
Pink Pelican Ice Cream Bar at 543 N Richard Jackson Blvd led the county with six high-severity violations. Inspectors cited the shop for food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a finding that puts every item on the menu in question for that inspection period. The same visit turned up toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods.
Two more high-severity citations at Pink Pelican involved handwashing technique and the absence of an active person in charge. Single-use items were being reused, and multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned.
Jin Jin Fusion Inc at 7901 Front Beach Rd drew five high-severity violations, including the county's most acutely dangerous single citation: employees not reporting symptoms of illness. Inspectors also found food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Six intermediate violations accompanied those findings, including improper sewage or wastewater disposal and inadequate cooling equipment.
Hibachi Express and Sushi at 9956 Hutchinson Blvd was cited for five high-severity violations, including inadequate handwashing facilities, meaning the physical infrastructure for hand hygiene was absent or insufficient. Inspectors also found food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, toxic substances improperly stored, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and no active person in charge.
Chili's at 15640 Panama City Beach Pkwy drew five high-severity violations with no intermediate citations alongside them. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Food came from an unapproved or unknown source. Time as a public health control was not being properly used, meaning food was allowed to sit in the bacterial growth zone without adequate tracking. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored, and no consumer advisory was posted.
Bird and Brew Co at 100 Pier Park Dr was cited for five high-severity violations centered heavily on illness and sourcing. The facility had no written employee health policy, employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and food came from an unapproved source. Inspectors also flagged inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning shellfish served there could not be traced to a certified harvester if someone got sick.
Jin Jin King at 7725 Front Beach Rd matched the five high-severity count with a different profile: improper handwashing technique, inadequate shell stock records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory. Three intermediate violations included inadequate cooling equipment and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
Springhill Suites Panama City Beach Beachfront at 12513 Front Beach Rd drew four high-severity violations. No person in charge was present or performing duties. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Handwashing technique was cited as inadequate, and toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used.
Diego's Burrito Factory at 6209 Sunset Drive also reached four high-severity violations, including employee illness reporting failures, improper handwashing technique, inadequate shell stock identification, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned. The facility also had inadequate toilet facilities, a finding that compounds the handwashing concern directly.
Canopy Road Cafe at 12805 US Hwy 98 E in Inlet Beach drew four high-severity violations including time as a public health control not properly used, no consumer advisory, improper handwashing technique, and employees not reporting illness symptoms.
Do Play at 287 Aberdeen Pkwy in Panama City was cited for three high-severity violations, one of which was no allergen awareness demonstrated, a citation that does not appear at any other facility in this week's data. Another Broken Egg Cafe at 11535 Hutchison Blvd drew three high-severity violations including food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. Legacy Golf Club at 100 Fairway Club rounded out the twelve with three high-severity citations, including shell stock traceability and employee illness reporting failures.
What These Violations Mean
The violation that appears most often across this week's inspections, employees not reporting illness symptoms, is the one that turns a single sick worker into a multi-victim outbreak. Norovirus, which spreads through contaminated food and surfaces, requires an infectious dose of fewer than 20 viral particles. At Jin Jin Fusion, Chili's, Bird and Brew Co, Springhill Suites, Diego's Burrito Factory, Canopy Road Cafe, Another Broken Egg Cafe, and Legacy Golf Club, inspectors found no system in place to catch a sick employee before they reached the food.
Food from unapproved sources, cited at Pink Pelican Ice Cream Bar, Chili's, and Bird and Brew Co, is a traceability problem as much as a safety problem. When food bypasses USDA or FDA-approved supply chains, there is no mechanism to pull a product if a contamination event is later identified. If someone gets sick, investigators cannot work backward to the source.
The shell stock traceability violations at Bird and Brew Co, Jin Jin King, Diego's Burrito Factory, and Legacy Golf Club carry a specific risk profile. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from the water they live in. State rules require certified harvest tags to remain on file so that any oyster, clam, or mussel served at a Florida restaurant can be traced to a specific harvest location and date. Without those records, a Vibrio or hepatitis A exposure cannot be investigated.
Toxic chemicals improperly stored near food, cited at Pink Pelican, Jin Jin Fusion, Hibachi Express, Chili's, and Jin Jin King, represents an acute poisoning risk. Mislabeled or improperly stored chemicals near food preparation surfaces can contaminate food directly, and a worker using an unlabeled bottle may not know what they are handling.
The Longer Record
The data does not include prior inspection counts for the facilities in this week's report, which limits the ability to place these findings against a longer institutional record. What the violation profiles themselves reveal, however, is a pattern worth noting.
Three facilities, Hibachi Express and Sushi, Jin Jin Fusion, and Jin Jin King, share overlapping violation categories: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Two of those three also had inadequate cooling equipment. That convergence of the same high-severity citations across multiple Front Beach Road corridor establishments in the same week points to shared conditions rather than isolated incidents.
Bird and Brew Co at Pier Park drew citations across three distinct risk categories in a single visit: no employee health policy, food from unapproved sources, and no shell stock traceability. Those three violations together describe a facility without foundational food safety infrastructure, not a facility that slipped on one item.
Legacy Golf Club's three high-severity violations included both employee illness reporting failures and missing shell stock records. A golf club dining operation serving shellfish without harvest documentation to a member clientele that likely includes older adults, a population more vulnerable to Vibrio infection, is the specific combination those traceability rules were written to prevent.
