JACKSONVILLE, FL. State inspectors walked into Pho Today at 9700 Deer Lake Court on September 4, 2026, and documented food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning there is no traceability if a customer gets sick. When they left, the restaurant was still serving customers.
The September inspection produced 11 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate violations, a total of 17 citations in a single visit. The facility was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most serious an inspector can document. When a restaurant obtains food from an unapproved or unidentifiable supplier, that food has bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections entirely. If a customer falls ill, investigators have no supply chain to trace.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. Undercooked poultry can harbor live Salmonella. Pho broth and the meats served in it are subject to specific internal temperature requirements, and this kitchen was not meeting them.
Two violations addressed the same failure from different angles: the restaurant had no written employee health policy, and employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Together, those findings mean a sick worker had no formal obligation to stay home and no documented system requiring them to report symptoms before handling food.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled, with a separate citation for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Two chemical violations in a single inspection, at a facility that handles food, represents a direct contamination pathway.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing and cooking temperature violations are not paperwork problems. When food arrives from an unknown supplier, it has not been inspected at any point in the supply chain. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli are all possible contaminants in uninspected product. If an outbreak occurs, health officials cannot identify the source.
Undercooking compounds that risk. A pathogen that survived the supply chain can only be eliminated at proper cooking temperatures. Salmonella in poultry is not killed below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At Pho Today, inspectors found the kitchen was not reliably reaching those thresholds.
The illness reporting failures are what epidemiologists call an outbreak enabler. Norovirus, the most common cause of multi-victim foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through direct food handling by infected workers. Without a written health policy and without a culture of symptom reporting, a sick employee has no formal reason to stay out of the kitchen.
The sewage disposal violation carries its own risk category. Improper handling of wastewater in a food preparation environment creates the possibility of fecal contamination reaching surfaces, utensils, or food directly. The intermediate citation for improperly cleaned multi-use utensils means that even if food arrived safely and was cooked correctly, the bowls and spoons used to serve it could have been reintroducing bacteria to every dish.
The Longer Record
Pho Today: Inspection Pattern, 2024–2026
The September 2026 inspection was not an aberration. State records show 34 inspections on file for Pho Today, with 408 total violations documented across that history. The facility has been inspected at least eight times since September 2024.
The pattern is consistent and specific. In September 2024, inspectors found 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations. The facility passed a follow-up the next day. In February 2026, inspectors returned and found 10 high and 5 intermediate violations on February 4. The facility passed again on February 9. The September 2026 inspection produced 11 high-severity violations, the highest single-visit high-severity count in the recent record.
This is the third time in roughly 12 months that inspectors documented 10 or more high-severity violations at this address. Each time, the restaurant cleaned up enough to pass a follow-up visit. Each time, a subsequent inspection found a similar accumulation of serious citations.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, in April 2016, after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened the following day. In the decade since that closure, the facility has accumulated 408 violations on record without triggering a second emergency shutdown, including the 11 high-severity citations documented on September 4, 2026.
The restaurant remained open after that inspection.
