CORAL SPRINGS, FL. A state inspector walked into Chicken Salad Chick on North University Drive on June 29, 2026, and documented that food was not being cooked to its required minimum temperature, a violation that, at a restaurant whose entire menu is built around chicken, means Salmonella survival is not a hypothetical risk.
The inspection turned up seven high-severity violations and three intermediate violations in total. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The temperature violation sits at the top of that list for a reason. Salmonella in poultry does not die until internal temperatures reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A restaurant that sells chicken salad in dozens of variations, to hundreds of customers a day, cannot afford to shortcut that step.
Inspectors also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and for inadequate handwashing. Those two violations, appearing together, describe a direct transmission route from a sick worker's hands to a customer's food.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. The record does not specify which chemicals or exactly where they were found, but improperly stored chemicals near food preparation areas create an acute poisoning risk that has nothing to do with bacteria.
The inspector also cited the absence of a person in charge actively performing supervisory duties. That violation, on its own, is a warning sign. Combined with six other high-severity findings on the same visit, it reads as an explanation.
What These Violations Mean
The temperature violation is the most direct public health threat in this inspection record. Chicken is the vehicle for Salmonella more than almost any other food. When it is not cooked to the required internal temperature, any Salmonella present in the raw product survives into the finished dish. At a restaurant where chicken salad is the entire concept, that is not a marginal risk.
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations compound that threat. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks, spreads almost exclusively through the fecal-oral route, meaning an infected worker who does not wash hands properly and does not report symptoms can contaminate every item they prepare. The CDC identifies food worker illness as the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks in restaurant settings.
The chemical storage violation adds a separate and unrelated hazard. Cleaning chemicals and sanitizers stored near or above food preparation surfaces can contaminate food directly, through spillage or mislabeling. That kind of contamination does not announce itself the way a temperature violation might.
Improper sewage disposal, one of the three intermediate violations, carries its own risk. Raw sewage contains fecal pathogens. When disposal is inadequate, those pathogens can reach surfaces, equipment, and food in the facility.
The Longer Record
The June 29 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 18 inspections on file for this location, with 62 total violations across that history.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent. The March 2026 inspection, just three months before this one, turned up four high-severity violations. The January 2025 inspection also produced four high-severity violations. The August 2024 inspection matched this month's total exactly, with seven high-severity violations and zero intermediate ones.
That August 2024 inspection is worth noting. Seven high-severity violations, no closure, and the pattern continued. Eighteen months later, inspectors were back documenting the same number of high-severity violations.
The location has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. Two inspections, in October 2024 and April 2024, produced zero violations of any severity. Those clean inspections sit in the record alongside visits that produced seven high-severity findings each, which makes the variance as notable as the violations themselves.
The Facility Remained Open
Florida's emergency closure authority applies when inspectors determine that a facility poses an immediate threat to public health. The state did not invoke that authority here.
Seven high-severity violations, including undercooked food at a chicken-focused restaurant, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, and improperly stored chemicals, did not meet that threshold on June 29, 2026.
The Chicken Salad Chick on North University Drive continued serving customers that day.
