ST. PETERSBURG, FL. State inspectors visiting China King at 6816 22nd Ave N on April 28 found food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, a restaurant operating without any employee illness reporting policy, and workers using improper handwashing technique. They cited 10 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations. Then they left the restaurant open.
What Inspectors Found
The contaminated food citation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate at China King that day. State inspectors documented food adulterated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, a violation that covers everything from cleaning solution residue on food to physical objects like glass or metal fragments to bacterial contamination already in progress.
Alongside it, inspectors found that the restaurant had no functioning employee illness policy and that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where a sick worker had no formal obligation to disclose their condition and no written procedure requiring them to stay away from food.
Food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep tables, were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, meaning that even when employees did wash their hands, they were not doing it in a way that removes pathogens.
The restaurant was also cited for inadequate shell stock identification records. China King serves shellfish, which are consumed raw or lightly cooked and require complete traceability back to their harvest source. Without those records, there is no way to trace an illness back to a contaminated harvest lot.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no illness reporting policy and employees not reporting symptoms is the profile that precedes multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness in the United States with roughly 20 million cases per year, spreads most efficiently through food workers who continue working while symptomatic. China King had no written policy requiring workers to report illness and, separately, workers were observed not reporting symptoms. Both conditions were present at the same time, in the same kitchen.
The improper handwashing citation compounds that risk. A worker who attempts to wash their hands but uses incorrect technique, whether by not scrubbing long enough, skipping soap, or not washing between the fingers, leaves pathogens on their hands. That worker then touches food, utensils, and surfaces. The food contact surface citation documents exactly that downstream effect: surfaces that should have been cleaned and sanitized were not.
The shell stock traceability failure carries a different but serious risk. Shellfish harvested from contaminated waters can carry Vibrio bacteria or norovirus. The tagging and record system exists so that if customers get sick, public health officials can identify the harvest source and pull product from other restaurants before more people are exposed. Without those records at China King, that chain of investigation breaks.
Time as a public health control, when used correctly, allows food to sit in the temperature danger zone for a defined period before it must be discarded. When that system is not properly followed, food remains in the range where bacteria multiply rapidly, with no temperature log and no discard clock running.
The Longer Record
China King: Recent Inspection History
April 28 was not an anomaly. State records show China King has accumulated 317 violations across 34 inspections on record. In October 2023, inspectors cited 11 high-severity violations in a single visit. In April and May of 2024, the restaurant reached 10 high-severity violations in back-to-back inspections separated by a month. The April 28 inspection matches that same threshold.
The restaurant has been emergency-closed twice, both times for roach activity. The first closure came in November 2021. The second came five months later, in April 2022, and the restaurant was allowed to reopen the following day. Neither closure appears to have broken the pattern of high-severity violations in subsequent years.
The November 2025 inspections are worth noting on their own. Inspectors visited on November 24 and found 7 high-severity violations. They returned the next day and found 3 more high-severity violations. Two visits in two days, both producing high-priority citations.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine an imminent threat to public health exists. On April 28, state inspectors found contaminated food, no illness reporting system, improper handwashing, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and a person in charge not performing their duties. They cited 10 high-severity violations.
China King remained open.