JACKSONVILLE, FL. Inspectors who walked into Ya Habibi Slice & Spice at 6271 St. Augustine Road on October 1 found that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness to management, a violation state records classify as an outbreak enabler and the leading documented cause of multi-victim foodborne illness events.
That was one of nine high-severity violations cited that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The illness reporting violation did not exist in isolation. Inspectors also found the restaurant had no written employee health policy at all, meaning there was no documented system requiring workers to disclose symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice before handling food.
Those two violations together describe a kitchen where a sick employee could show up, prepare food, and do so without any formal mechanism to stop them.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a violation that creates a direct transfer route from contaminated equipment to food. Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, which means that even when employees washed their hands, they may not have removed the pathogens that proper technique is designed to eliminate.
Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used. State records categorize both violations as acute poisoning risks when chemicals are stored near food or mislabeled.
Inspectors further found that time was not being properly used as a public health control. When temperature-controlled storage is not available, food safety rules allow time to substitute, but only under a precise written plan. Without that plan, food can sit in the bacterial growth range without any documented limit.
There was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers with compromised immune systems, those who are pregnant, or the elderly had no way to know they might be ordering something that carried elevated risk.
Among the four intermediate violations was improper sewage or wastewater disposal, a finding state records describe as creating risk of fecal contamination throughout the facility.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no health policy and employees not reporting illness is the documented precondition for a Norovirus outbreak. Norovirus spreads through contaminated food prepared by sick workers and can sicken dozens of people from a single shift. A written health policy is not a formality. It is the mechanism that keeps a symptomatic worker out of the kitchen.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk directly. Studies show that even workers who intend to wash their hands correctly often leave pathogens on skin when technique is wrong. At Ya Habibi, inspectors found both the reporting failure and the technique failure present at the same time.
The chemical storage violations carry a separate and immediate danger. When cleaning agents or pesticides are stored near food or in unlabeled containers, the path to acute poisoning is short. A mislabeled bottle used in food prep does not produce gradual symptoms. It produces a medical emergency.
The sewage disposal violation found at Ya Habibi on October 1 is the most infrastructure-level finding in the report. Raw sewage contains fecal bacteria including E. coli and Salmonella. Improper disposal routes that contamination into areas of the facility that employees and food contact surfaces then touch.
The Longer Record
Ya Habibi Slice & Spice: Inspection History
The October 1 inspection was not the first time this location drew serious scrutiny. State records show 29 inspections on file for Ya Habibi Slice & Spice, with 183 total violations accumulated across that history.
The previous single-inspection peak came in October 2024, when inspectors cited six high-severity violations in one visit. The October 2026 inspection nearly doubled that count.
The facility was emergency-closed on the same day as the October 1 inspection, records show, for roach activity. It passed a follow-up inspection the next day and reopened. The nine high-severity violations documented that same October 1 visit did not themselves trigger the closure order.
The restaurant was open for business on October 2.
