DAYTONA BEACH, FL. A Japanese restaurant a block off the tourist waterfront racked up 9 high-severity violations during the week of July 26, leading a troubling sweep of 12 Daytona Beach area restaurants that inspectors cited for serious food safety failures during one of the year's busiest vacation weeks.
Ichi Ni San at 246 S. Beach Street drew the week's highest violation count, with inspectors documenting food from unapproved or unknown sources, inadequate shellfish identification records, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and multiple breakdowns in handwashing, including inadequate facilities, inadequate technique, and employees who were not washing at all. A fifth handwashing citation covered failure to report illness symptoms. Inspectors also flagged that time was being used as a public health control without being properly managed, a practice that allows food to sit in the bacterial growth zone without adequate tracking.
What Inspectors Found
BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse at 2514 W. International Speedway Boulevard was cited for 8 high-severity violations. The list included no person in charge present or performing duties, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, missing shellfish traceability records, parasite destruction procedures not followed for fish, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly.
AB Pho and Deli at 312 S. Peninsula Drive matched Wayback Burgers with 7 high-severity violations. Inspectors found no person in charge, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food from an unapproved or unknown source, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Wayback Burgers at 1500 Beville Road drew 7 high-severity citations covering employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition or adulterated, missing shellfish identification records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff.
Mexican Restaurant and Taqueria La Perla at 1186 N. Nova Road was cited for 5 high-severity violations including employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory for raw items, and chemicals improperly stored. Inspectors also documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal and single-use items being reused.
Bojangles #2090 at 1956 LPGA Boulevard drew 5 high-severity citations: employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition or adulterated, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Istanbul Turkish Mediterranean Cuisine at 488 S. Yonge Street in Ormond Beach was cited for 5 high-severity violations including improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, no consumer advisory, improperly stored chemicals, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. Inspectors also flagged improper sewage disposal, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation.
China 1 at 2661 N. Atlantic Avenue, steps from the beachside hotel strip, was cited for 4 high-severity violations: employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and no allergen awareness demonstrated.
Bucketlist Bar and Grill at 300 N. Atlantic Avenue on the beachfront strip drew 4 high-severity violations including no person in charge, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and improperly stored chemicals. Inspectors also documented improper sewage disposal and inadequate toilet facilities.
Port Hole at 932 Herbert Street in Port Orange was cited for 4 high-severity violations: no person in charge, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, and parasite destruction procedures not followed.
Tasty Wings at 852 N. Nova Road drew 4 high-severity violations covering improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish identification records, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and required procedures for specialized processes not followed.
Holiday Inn Daytona Beach at 137 Automall Circle was cited for 2 high-severity violations: no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
What These Violations Mean
The single most pervasive violation this week was employees not reporting illness symptoms, cited at nine of the twelve facilities. For tourists, that matters acutely. Norovirus, the pathogen most commonly spread by sick food workers, can incapacitate a person within 12 to 48 hours of exposure. A visitor who eats at one of these locations on a Tuesday may spend Wednesday and Thursday of their vacation severely ill in a hotel room, with no way to trace the source.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources, cited at AB Pho and Deli, Bojangles, and China 1, means the supply chain for those ingredients bypassed federal inspection. If a batch of seafood, meat, or produce is later linked to a multistate outbreak, there is no tag, invoice, or lot number to pull. The shellfish traceability failures at Ichi Ni San, BJ's, Wayback Burgers, and Tasty Wings compound that problem specifically for raw or lightly cooked shellfish, which carry Vibrio and hepatitis A risks that intensify in summer.
Parasite destruction failures at BJ's, Wayback Burgers, and Port Hole mean fish served at those locations may not have been frozen to the temperature and duration required to kill Anisakis and other parasites. Customers ordering sushi-style preparations or lightly cooked fish dishes would have had no way to know.
The allergen awareness failures at Wayback Burgers, Istanbul, and China 1 are a direct threat to the 32 million Americans with food allergies. A staff that cannot identify allergens in dishes cannot prevent a potentially fatal reaction. That risk does not diminish because a customer is on vacation.
The Longer Record
The data does not include prior inspection counts for these facilities, which limits direct comparison of how long these patterns have persisted. What the violation types themselves reveal, however, is that many of the failures documented this week are not the kind that emerge suddenly. The absence of an employee health policy at AB Pho and Deli, for example, is a structural gap, not a one-day oversight. A written policy either exists or it does not.
The same is true for missing consumer advisories, cited at BJ's, Bojangles, Holiday Inn, Istanbul, La Perla, and Wayback Burgers. Menus are printed documents. The absence of required raw food disclosures on those menus reflects a decision that predates this week's inspection.
Management absence, cited at AB Pho and Deli, BJ's, Bucketlist, and Port Hole, correlates strongly with cascading violations. CDC data cited in the inspection records indicates establishments without active managerial control average three times the critical violation rate of those with a qualified person in charge on the floor. Four of this week's twelve facilities had no one filling that role when inspectors arrived.
Bucketlist Bar and Grill on N. Atlantic Avenue, a beachfront location drawing summer tourist traffic, was cited for both sewage disposal violations and inadequate toilet facilities in addition to its four high-severity findings.
