DAYTONA BEACH, FL. A state inspector visiting Ichi Ni San on South Beach Street on May 27 found that the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, a violation that means the ingredients on customers' plates could not be traced through any federally regulated safety inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
That single finding was one of nine high-severity violations documented during the visit, along with four intermediate violations. Nine high-severity citations is a number that, at other facilities, has triggered emergency closures. At Ichi Ni San, inspectors left the restaurant operating.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish traceability violation compounds the sourcing problem. Ichi Ni San is a Japanese restaurant where oysters, clams, and similar shellfish are likely served raw or lightly cooked. Without proper shell stock identification records, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch back to its harvest location if a customer gets sick.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for not cooking food to required minimum temperatures, for employees failing to report illness symptoms, and for improper handwashing technique alongside inadequate handwashing facilities. Those last two violations appeared together, meaning the infrastructure for proper hand hygiene was broken and the technique used at the available facilities was wrong.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. Staff demonstrated no allergen awareness, a finding that carries weight at a restaurant where soy, shellfish, and fish are core ingredients.
The four intermediate violations included improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation is not a paperwork problem. When food enters a restaurant outside of USDA and FDA regulated supply chains, there is no inspection record, no traceability, and no reliable way to identify the source if customers report illness. At a sushi restaurant, where raw fish is the product, that gap is acute.
The shellfish citation makes the sourcing problem worse. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from their surrounding water. State and federal regulations require restaurants to keep shell stock tags, which identify the harvest location and date, precisely because contaminated shellfish outbreaks have been traced and contained through those records. Without them, a norovirus or Vibrio outbreak becomes nearly impossible to source.
The combination of employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper handwashing technique represents what health officials call a transmission cluster. Sick employees who do not report symptoms continue handling food. If the sinks available for handwashing are inadequate, and the technique used at those sinks is wrong, pathogens move from worker to food to customer with nothing interrupting the chain.
No allergen awareness at a Japanese restaurant is a direct danger to the 32 million Americans living with food allergies. Soy, shellfish, and fish are three of the eight major allergens recognized by the FDA. A staff that cannot identify allergens in dishes, or does not know to ask, cannot warn a customer who needs that information.
The Longer Record
The May 27 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Ichi Ni San has accumulated 276 violations across 28 inspections on record, and the pattern of high-severity citations runs deep.
In October 2025, inspectors found 11 high-severity violations. In December 2024, another 11 high-severity violations, plus five intermediate. In April 2025 and April 2024, nine high-severity violations each. The restaurant has now hit the nine-high-severity threshold in at least four separate inspections across two years.
A follow-up inspection on May 28, the day after the 13-violation visit, showed one high-severity and two intermediate violations remaining. That reduction suggests some corrections were made quickly. It does not explain how the same facility reached nine high-severity violations again after recording the same number in April 2025 and nine more in April 2024.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, on August 15, 2019, for roach and rodent activity. It reopened the same day. That closure stands as the one moment in the facility's recorded history when inspectors decided the conditions required a customer warning severe enough to lock the doors.
On May 27, 2026, with nine high-severity violations including food from unapproved sources, no allergen awareness, employees not reporting illness, and improper sewage disposal, the doors stayed open.