ST AUGUSTINE, FL. A state inspector walked into Matsukawa Sushi at 74 Capulet Drive on July 23, 2026, and found food sourced from an unapproved or unknown supplier, a violation that means the raw fish and other ingredients on customers' plates that day had bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections entirely.
That was one of ten high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also documented that no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the visit. That finding matters beyond a paperwork technicality. CDC data shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged management on the floor.
The employee illness picture was equally stark. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, and employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two violations together describe a workplace where a sick cook or server has no formal obligation to stay home, and no documented system requiring them to do so.
Toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly, placing them in proximity to food. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Time as a public health control, a method that allows food to sit at room temperature for a set window instead of being held at safe temperatures, was not being used correctly.
Inspectors also cited required procedures for specialized processes not being followed. For a sushi restaurant, that category covers the precise handling protocols for raw fish, including parasite destruction requirements for certain species served raw.
Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned, and ventilation and lighting were cited as inadequate, rounding out the twelve total violations.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a labeling problem. It means that if a customer becomes ill after eating at Matsukawa Sushi, investigators cannot trace the ingredient back through a certified supply chain, because there is no certified supply chain to trace. Listeria, Salmonella, and hepatitis A have all been linked to uninspected seafood and produce.
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting symptoms is the documented mechanism behind most multi-victim foodborne illness outbreaks. Norovirus, which causes 20 million cases of illness in the United States each year, spreads most efficiently when an infected food worker handles ready-to-eat food without being required to report that they are sick. That is precisely what these two violations describe.
Improper handwashing technique compounds the problem. An employee who attempts to wash their hands but does so incorrectly still transfers pathogens to food surfaces. Paired with inadequate handwashing facilities, the inspection record at Matsukawa Sushi on July 23 describes a kitchen where proper hand hygiene was structurally impossible regardless of individual intent.
The specialized process violation carries particular weight at a sushi restaurant. Raw fish served to customers requires documented parasite-destruction protocols, often freezing at specific temperatures for specific durations. When those required procedures are not followed, the restaurant is serving raw fish with no documented assurance that it meets the safety thresholds the process is designed to guarantee.
The Longer Record
The July 23 inspection was not an aberration. State records show Matsukawa Sushi has been inspected 31 times and has accumulated 235 total violations across that history.
The pattern in recent years is notable. An inspection on May 2, 2025 produced seven high-severity and four intermediate violations. A follow-up on July 7, 2025 found seven high-severity and one intermediate violation. A third inspection later that same day found no violations, a result that preceded a clean inspection in October 2025 and another in February 2026.
That cycle, serious violations followed by a passing follow-up, followed eventually by another round of serious violations, appears more than once in the record. The October 2025 inspection found three high-severity violations before two subsequent clean visits. The July 2026 inspection, with ten high-severity violations, is the worst single-day count in the recent history documented here.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its 31 inspections on record.
Open for Business
A follow-up inspection on July 24, 2026, the day after the ten-violation visit, found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. The restaurant cleared the re-inspection in one day.
What that means, in practical terms, is that Matsukawa Sushi was operating with food from an unapproved source, no employee illness policy, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and uncleaned food contact surfaces on July 23, and serving customers throughout.
It was not closed.
