FERNANDINA BEACH, FL. State inspectors found food from unapproved or unknown sources inside Wicked Bao on North 2nd Street during a May 19 inspection, one of six high-severity violations documented at the restaurant that day. The facility was not closed.
The inspection turned up a list of failures that touched nearly every layer of food safety: who is running the kitchen, where the food is coming from, whether employees who are sick are allowed to work, and whether customers are told what they are eating. All six high-severity violations remained on the record as the restaurant stayed open to customers.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation stands apart from the others. When a restaurant receives ingredients from unapproved or unknown suppliers, those products have bypassed the USDA and FDA inspection chain entirely. If a customer becomes ill, there is no traceable supply record to identify the source.
Inspectors also cited improperly identified, stored, or used toxic substances. That violation means chemicals capable of contaminating food or surfaces were not handled according to code, a finding that creates direct risk of accidental poisoning rather than the slower-acting risks tied to most food safety failures.
The restaurant had no written employee health policy. That means no documented protocol exists requiring workers to report illness or stay home when contagious.
No consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods was posted. Wicked Bao's menu includes items that may contain raw or undercooked ingredients. Without a visible advisory, customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, the elderly, and young children have no way to know which items carry elevated risk.
Handwashing facilities were cited as inadequate. A person in charge was not present or not performing required supervisory duties.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and inadequate handwashing facilities is worth reading together. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads most efficiently through food workers who handle food while sick and who do not wash their hands properly between tasks. At Wicked Bao on May 19, the infrastructure for both controls was flagged as missing or deficient.
The toxic substances violation is in a separate category from the others. Mishandled chemicals, whether cleaning agents, sanitizers, or pesticides stored near food prep surfaces, can contaminate food directly and without any visible sign. A customer would have no way to know.
Food from unapproved sources carries a particular risk when the affected restaurant has a prior closure on its record. If an illness cluster ever needed to be traced, inspectors and public health officials rely on supplier documentation. When that chain is broken, the investigation stops cold.
The absence of a person in charge performing supervisory duties is not a paperwork problem. CDC research has found that restaurants without active managerial control document three times as many critical violations as those with engaged supervision. On May 19 at Wicked Bao, six high-severity violations were found. The person responsible for catching them before an inspector arrived was not doing that job.
The Longer Record
The May 19 inspection is not an outlier. Wicked Bao has 25 inspections on record and 195 total violations documented across that history. The pattern in the prior inspection data is consistent: high-severity violations appear in nearly every cycle.
The most recent inspection before May, conducted on February 18, 2026, found eight high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. That was the heaviest single-visit violation count in the recent record. May's inspection, with six high-severity findings, is the second-highest in the past year.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once, on November 5, 2024, after inspectors found roach activity. It passed a follow-up inspection the next day and was allowed to reopen. Two inspections in 2025, on June 19 and November 6, showed zero high-severity violations, which indicates the restaurant is capable of meeting standards. But the inspections on either side of those clean visits, in June 2025 and January 2025, each produced four high-severity violations.
The food sourcing violation is appearing for the first time in the most recent data, which makes it the sharpest new concern in the pattern. Prior visits flagged management failures and employee health policy gaps repeatedly. The unknown-source ingredient finding on May 19 adds a dimension that was not visible in the earlier record.
Still Open
Florida law does not require automatic closure for any specific number of high-severity violations. Emergency closure is triggered when inspectors determine an imminent public health hazard exists. Six high-severity violations at Wicked Bao on May 19, including food from an unknown source and improperly stored toxic substances, did not meet that threshold.
The restaurant was open for business after the inspection.