MERRITT ISLAND, FL. State inspectors visiting Kings Duck Bar and Grill at 4155 N Courtenay Pkwy on August 27 found that the restaurant had no written employee health policy, meaning nothing on paper required sick workers to stay out of the kitchen or off the line.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish violation drew particular attention. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning the restaurant could not demonstrate where its oysters, clams, or mussels came from or when they were harvested.
Inspectors also found that parasite destruction procedures had not been followed. That citation applies when fish, pork, or wild game is served without the freezing or cooking required to kill parasites. And toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food areas.
The three intermediate violations compounded the picture. Sewage or wastewater was not being disposed of properly. Multi-use utensils had not been cleaned to standard. Toilet facilities were inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The missing employee health policy is not a paperwork technicality. Without a written policy that spells out when sick workers must stay home, a single employee with Norovirus can contaminate food touched by dozens of customers. Norovirus causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food service workers are a primary transmission route. Kings Duck Bar and Grill had no documented system to prevent that.
The shellfish traceability failure carries a separate and specific danger. Oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently eaten raw or barely cooked, and they filter and concentrate whatever pathogens exist in the water they were harvested from. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock identification tags, there is no way to trace an illness back to a harvest location or pull a contaminated batch before more people eat it.
The parasite destruction citation means that fish or other high-risk proteins were served without the required freezing protocol, which calls for holding fish at specific low temperatures for set periods to kill Anisakis worms and tapeworm larvae. Customers who ate undercooked or improperly handled fish that day had no way of knowing that step had been skipped.
Improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals near food represent a different category of risk entirely. Contamination from cleaning agents or pesticides can cause acute poisoning, and mislabeled containers make accidental exposure harder to identify and treat quickly.
The Longer Record
The August 27 inspection was the eighth on record for Kings Duck Bar and Grill. Across those eight inspections, state records show a total of 86 violations documented at the facility.
The pattern is not a straight line downward. The restaurant cleared two inspections with zero high-severity violations, one in September 2025 and one in January 2025. But the serious violations have returned repeatedly. In March 2026, inspectors found 10 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations. In September 2025, a different inspection round found 9 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations just days after a clean visit.
That cycle, clean inspection followed weeks or months later by a double-digit high-severity count, suggests the problems are not being permanently corrected. The May 2026 inspection found 3 high-severity violations. The June 2026 inspection found 1 high-severity violation. Then August arrived with 6.
Kings Duck Bar and Grill has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. The August 27 visit, with six high-severity citations including missing shellfish traceability records, improperly handled parasites, and toxic chemicals near food, did not change that.
The Facility Remained Open
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations, including failures in shellfish sourcing, parasite control, chemical storage, handwashing technique, food condition, and employee illness policy, did not meet that threshold on August 27.
The restaurant continued serving customers that day.
