COCOA BEACH, FL. Back in February 2026, a state inspector walked into the A Plus Store #40329H on Cocoa Beach and found slices of pizza and a container of boneless wings sitting at internal temperatures between 124 and 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The food had been made less than two hours earlier. State law requires hot-held food to stay at 135 degrees or above.
The inspection, conducted February 10 by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, turned up nine total violations. One was a priority violation, the temperature problem with the pizza and wings. Three others were priority foundation violations, meaning they pointed to gaps in management knowledge and food safety systems that underpin everything else in the store.
What Inspectors Found
The manager reheated the pizza and wings to 165 degrees Fahrenheit on the spot. That corrected the immediate temperature problem, but the inspector's notes show the food had already been sitting in the danger zone for some portion of the prior two hours.
Beyond the temperature violation, the inspector found a container of commercially processed cheese in the kitchen that had been opened the day before without a date mark. The manager corrected that on site as well. Those were the only two violations corrected during the visit.
Three priority foundation violations painted a picture of a store where food safety procedures existed more on paper than in practice. The inspector noted that no documentation was on file requiring employees to report illnesses to the person in charge. The person in charge was also unable to answer basic questions about employee health policy during the inspection. The store had no written procedures for handling a vomit or diarrhea cleanup event.
Employees were observed not wearing hair nets around open and exposed foods. Single-use cups in the backroom were stored directly on the floor. Ceiling tiles in the food establishment were broken. The store's 2026 food permit was not posted.
What These Violations Mean
The hot-holding temperature violation is the most direct food safety risk documented in this inspection. When cooked food drops below 135 degrees Fahrenheit and stays there, bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus can multiply rapidly. Pizza and wings held at 124 to 130 degrees are in a range where that growth can accelerate over time. The fact that the food had been made less than two hours before the inspection means the window was still open, but the longer such food sits in that range without correction, the greater the risk to anyone who eats it.
The three priority foundation violations are a different category of concern. They do not describe a single contaminated item. They describe a store where the systems meant to prevent contamination were not functioning. No employee illness reporting agreement means a worker with norovirus or Hepatitis A has no formal obligation to disclose that before handling food. The person in charge being unable to answer questions about employee health suggests those policies were not being actively enforced or communicated.
The absence of written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures matters for a retail store with customer foot traffic. A contamination event handled without proper protocols can spread pathogens to food contact surfaces, products on shelves, and other customers. The inspector provided documentation on all three of these points during the visit, but documentation handed over during an inspection is a starting point, not a fix.
The missing certified food protection manager certificate adds another layer. Florida requires at least one certified manager at food establishments. That credential is meant to ensure someone on staff has verified knowledge of food safety principles. The inspector noted no certificate was provided during the visit.
The Longer Record
The February 10 inspection resulted in a finding that the store met sanitation inspection requirements, meaning it was not ordered closed and was not placed in violation status at the conclusion of the visit. None of the nine violations from this inspection were marked as repeats from a prior inspection cycle.
The data for this inspection does not include a prior inspection count for this specific location, so a direct comparison to past visits is not available from this record. What the record does show is that six of the nine violations documented in February were not corrected on site, including the three priority foundation violations involving employee illness reporting, management knowledge gaps, and the lack of cleanup procedures for contamination events.
The store passed the inspection overall. But the pizza and wings measured at 124 to 130 degrees, the opened cheese with no date mark, and the manager who could not answer basic questions about employee health policy were all part of that same visit.