FERNANDINA BEACH, FL. When state inspectors walked into Tasty's at 710 Centre St. on April 28, they found a restaurant where employees had no demonstrated awareness of food allergies, no functioning health policy to keep sick workers out of the kitchen, and no proper handwashing technique in use. They left it open.
The inspection turned up 8 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations, a tally that placed the Nassau County restaurant among the more troubled inspections in the region this spring. State records show the facility has never been emergency-closed in 23 inspections on record.
What Inspectors Found
The allergen violation is among the most acute in the inspection report. Inspectors documented that no allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff, meaning employees could not reliably identify or communicate the presence of common allergens in menu items to customers who asked.
Food allergies affect 32 million Americans. Allergic reactions send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year, and a kitchen staff that cannot answer basic allergen questions is a direct link in that chain.
The employee illness violations compounded the concern. Inspectors cited both the absence of a written employee health policy and the failure of employees to report illness symptoms. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where a worker with Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A has no formal obligation to stay home and no system requiring them to disclose symptoms before handling food.
The handwashing citation added another layer. Inspectors noted improper technique, meaning that even when employees washed their hands, the process was not sufficient to remove pathogens. An improperly executed handwash can leave the same contamination on hands as no handwash at all.
The shellfish traceability violation flagged inadequate shell stock identification and records. Tasty's serves a coastal clientele in a beach town where raw or lightly cooked shellfish are a menu staple. Without proper tags and records, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest bed if a customer becomes ill.
Inspectors also documented improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals and improperly identified or stored toxic substances. Two separate violations in the same category, on the same visit, point to a broader problem with how cleaning and sanitizing agents are managed throughout the facility.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no health policy and no illness reporting is the pattern that state and federal food safety officials consistently identify as the primary driver of multi-victim outbreaks. When a sick worker has no written policy to consult and no reporting requirement to follow, they make their own judgment about whether to come in. In a kitchen serving dozens or hundreds of customers a day, one symptomatic employee can transmit Norovirus to every plate that passes through their hands.
The food contact surface violation compounds that risk. Surfaces that are not properly cleaned and sanitized become transfer points for whatever pathogens are present in the kitchen, whether from an ill employee, raw shellfish, or contaminated raw protein. The intermediate sanitizer violation, which noted improper sanitizing solution or procedures, means the sanitizing step itself was not functioning correctly, leaving bacteria alive on surfaces that appeared clean.
The two toxic substance violations, taken together, describe a facility where chemical storage and labeling were not under control. Improperly labeled chemicals can be mistaken for food-safe products. Chemicals stored near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly. Both violations were cited at Tasty's on the same inspection date.
The Longer Record
The April 28 inspection was not the first time Tasty's has drawn serious citations. State records covering 23 inspections show 229 total violations accumulated over the facility's history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The most recent prior inspection, in November 2025, produced 4 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. The inspection before that, in March 2025, found 3 high-severity and 7 intermediate violations. The only clean inspection in recent years came in November 2024, when inspectors found zero high or intermediate violations. That clean record lasted exactly one month: a return visit on October 31, 2024 had already documented 4 high-severity violations before the clean November inspection took place.
Going back further, the pattern holds. The January 2022 inspection produced 5 high-severity violations. The July 2021 inspection produced 3 high-severity violations. In eight of the most recent inspections on record, the facility drew at least 2 high-severity violations each time.
The April 28 inspection, with 8 high-severity violations, is the highest single-visit high-severity count in the recent record.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure threshold requires an inspector to determine that conditions present an immediate threat to public health. The violations documented at Tasty's on April 28, including employees not reporting illness, no allergen awareness, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and unlabeled toxic chemicals, did not meet that threshold.
Tasty's remained open following the inspection.