ST. JOHNS, FL. Inspectors walked into the SoFresh at 505 Durbin Pavilion Drive on June 16, 2026, and left with six high-severity violations on the books. The restaurant was not closed.
Among the findings: employees demonstrated no allergen awareness, toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food, and staff were not reporting illness symptoms. Any one of those violations can send a customer to the emergency room. All three were documented in the same visit.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violations were cited twice, once as improper storage or labeling and once as improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances. Inspectors flagged both as distinct high-severity findings, which means the chemical hazard was serious enough to document from two angles in the same inspection.
The allergen violation stands on its own. Inspectors found no allergen awareness demonstrated, meaning staff could not show they understood how to handle or communicate about the major food allergens that trigger life-threatening reactions.
No consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked foods, leaving customers with no written notice that certain menu items carry elevated risk. That matters most for elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system.
What These Violations Mean
The allergen finding is the one that carries the most immediate, unpredictable danger. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms every year. When staff cannot demonstrate allergen awareness, there is no reliable barrier between a customer with a severe allergy and an ingredient that could kill them.
The chemical violations compound that risk in a different direction. Improperly stored or mislabeled chemicals near food create a direct contamination pathway. A customer would have no way of knowing, and no way of detecting, that a cleaning agent or sanitizer had come into contact with their meal.
The illness-reporting failure is the third acute risk. Food workers who do not report symptoms of illness are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, in particular, spreads rapidly when an infected employee handles food without triggering the protocols that would keep them off the line.
Improper handwashing technique adds a layer underneath all of that. Even when an employee makes an attempt to wash their hands, flawed technique leaves pathogens in place. The handwashing attempt becomes theater rather than protection.
The Longer Record
SoFresh Durbin Pavilion: Inspection History
This is not a new pattern. Across nine inspections on record, SoFresh at Durbin Pavilion has accumulated 57 total violations. Six of those nine inspections produced high-severity findings, and four of them produced five or more high-severity violations in a single visit.
The June 2025 sequence is worth noting. On June 11, 2025, inspectors found six high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. Two days later, on June 13, the location passed with zero violations. Six months after that clean inspection, it was back to five high-severity violations in December. The pattern is not a facility improving and holding. It is a facility passing re-inspections and then reverting.
The location has never been emergency-closed despite this record. The June 16, 2026, inspection with six high-severity violations, including chemical contamination risks and no allergen awareness, did not change that.
Still Open
State inspection records list SoFresh at 505 Durbin Pavilion Drive as remaining open after the June 16 inspection.
Fifty-seven violations across nine inspections, six of them high-severity in the most recent visit, and the doors stayed unlocked.