PANAMA CITY, FL. State inspectors visiting Hunts Oyster Bar at 1150 Beck Ave. on September 29 found that the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, a violation that means no one, including inspectors, could trace where the food came from if a customer got sick.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction violation is particularly pointed at an oyster bar. Records show the restaurant failed to follow required freezing or cooking procedures designed to kill parasites, including Anisakis and tapeworm, that can survive in raw or undercooked fish and shellfish. At a restaurant whose identity is built around raw oysters and seafood, that failure goes to the core of what the kitchen is doing every day.
Two separate violations involved toxic chemicals, one for improper storage or labeling and a second for improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances. Both citations appearing in the same inspection means inspectors found multiple distinct problems with how chemicals were handled near food.
The food contact surfaces violation rounds out a picture of a kitchen where the basic barriers against bacterial transfer were not in place. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that are not properly sanitized between uses carry pathogens directly from one food item to the next.
Inspectors also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, an intermediate violation that points to risk of fecal contamination spreading through the facility. Inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment, the second intermediate violation, means the kitchen lacked the mechanical capacity to keep food at safe temperatures.
What These Violations Mean
The unapproved food source violation is the one that should concern anyone who ate at Hunts Oyster Bar around the time of this inspection. When food arrives from a supplier that has not been approved by state or federal regulators, it has bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections. If a customer became ill, investigators would have no paper trail to follow, no lot numbers, no licensed distributor records.
The parasite destruction failure carries a specific and serious risk in a seafood context. Regulations require that fish served raw or undercooked be frozen to specific temperatures for specific periods, precisely to kill parasites like Anisakis, which can cause severe abdominal pain and intestinal damage in humans. An oyster bar that is not following those procedures is serving customers food that may still harbor living parasites.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items compounds that risk. Florida law requires restaurants serving raw or undercooked animal products to post a written warning so that customers who are elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised, or otherwise vulnerable can make an informed choice. Without it, those customers have no way of knowing they are taking on additional risk.
The handwashing technique violation deserves attention beyond the surface reading. An employee who attempts to wash their hands but uses improper technique, wrong duration, wrong coverage, can leave enough pathogens on their hands to contaminate every surface and food item they subsequently touch. The attempt happened. The protection did not.
The Longer Record
The September 29 inspection was the 52nd on record for Hunts Oyster Bar, and the facility has accumulated 257 total violations across that history. It has never been emergency-closed.
The recent inspection pattern shows a restaurant that cycles between clean visits and significant violation counts. A June 2025 inspection recorded zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. Three months earlier, in April 2025, inspectors found six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The June 2026 inspection produced five high-severity violations and one intermediate. September 2026 produced seven high-severity violations and two intermediate.
The categories are not random. High-severity violations have appeared in six of the eight most recent inspections on record. The facility has been cited repeatedly for food safety fundamentals across multiple years, not for isolated or one-time lapses.
The prior inspection history shows no emergency closures in 52 visits. That means that through six high-severity violations in April 2025, five in June 2026, and now seven in September 2026, the restaurant has remained open each time. The record does not show a facility that is getting worse for the first time. It shows a facility that has produced serious violations at regular intervals for years and has continued to operate through all of them.
Still Open
After the September 29 inspection, Hunts Oyster Bar was not closed. Customers who walked in that evening, or the next day, had no way of knowing that state inspectors had just documented seven high-severity violations inside, including food from unknown sources, failed parasite controls, and improperly handled toxic chemicals.
The restaurant remained open.
