THE VILLAGES, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors visiting Advanced Fresh Concepts Pb 0004, a seafood market and sushi retail operation in The Villages, found raw salmon stored directly above unwashed vegetables in the walk-in cooler, packaged sushi already running above safe temperature limits two hours after preparation, and an employee who returned to a food prep station and began putting on gloves without first washing their hands.
The February 9 inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services documented five violations in total, four of them priority-level. None were corrected before the inspector arrived, though all were addressed during the visit.
What Inspectors Found
The temperature finding was the most immediately documented concern. The inspector recorded that various sushi items prepared and packaged at 9:30 that morning measured between 42 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit in the customer self-service retail cooler when checked at 11:30 am. The specific products measured were a crunchy roll at 42 to 44 degrees, a spicy roll at 43 to 44 degrees, and a cream cheese item at 45 degrees. Safe cold-holding for time/temperature control foods requires 41 degrees or below.
All of the sushi products were moved from the retail cooler to the freezer for rapid cooling and the inspector verified they reached the required temperature.
The walk-in cooler violation was straightforward: raw salmon was sitting directly above unwashed vegetables. An employee moved the salmon to the bottom shelf during the inspection.
The rice violation involved a large plastic tub of white rice in the food prep area that had no label indicating a 10-hour hold time. That labeling requirement is part of the facility's special process approval, a state-granted authorization that allows the market to handle certain high-risk preparations under specific documented controls. The rice was labeled during the inspection.
The hand-washing violation was observed directly. According to the inspector's notes, the person in charge left the prep area, returned to the work station, and began putting on gloves to start a calibration task without first washing their hands. The employee stopped, washed their hands, and then put on gloves. The inspector discussed proper hand-washing protocol with the employee on site.
The fifth violation, marked as a repeat, involved squeeze bottles in the food prep area, including spicy sauce, poke sauce, and eel sauce, stored in a reach-in cooler without labels identifying their contents.
What These Violations Mean
The temperature violation at the self-service sushi cooler is the kind of finding that matters most to shoppers who pick up packaged rolls without any interaction with staff. Sushi prepared with fish, rice, and dairy-based fillings like cream cheese is a time/temperature control food, meaning bacterial growth accelerates when it climbs above 41 degrees. The sushi in question had only been packaged for two hours when it was already measuring 42 to 45 degrees. A customer who purchased one of those rolls later in the afternoon would have had no way of knowing how long it had been out of range.
The raw salmon above unwashed vegetables finding represents a direct cross-contamination risk. Raw fish can carry pathogens including Salmonella and Listeria. When stored above produce that will not be cooked before it reaches a customer, any drip or contact transfers those pathogens directly. The fix is straightforward, which is what makes the violation notable: raw proteins belong on the lowest shelves, below ready-to-eat and unwashed produce.
The unlabeled rice tub is a compliance issue with consequences beyond paperwork. The special process approval that governs how this facility handles sushi rice exists because acidified rice, if not prepared and held under documented controls, can support the growth of Clostridium botulinum. The hold-time label is how inspectors and staff verify those controls are being followed. A tub of rice with no label is a tub of rice with no verifiable record.
The repeat violation on squeeze bottle labeling is the smallest finding in this inspection but worth noting because it had appeared before. Unlabeled containers in a food prep area create conditions where staff may confuse ingredients, and where inspectors cannot verify what is being used or how long it has been stored.
The Longer Record
The February 2026 inspection stands out against this facility's recent history. In the three prior FDACS inspections on record, going back to March 2024, the market recorded zero violations each time. A focused inspection in December 2025 found nothing. A routine inspection in July 2024 found nothing. The March 2024 inspection found nothing.
Four clean inspections followed by five violations, four of them priority-level, is not a pattern of chronic noncompliance. It is a single inspection with a cluster of serious findings, all corrected on site.
What it does show is that a facility with a clean recent record can still present real risks on any given day. The sushi sitting at 45 degrees in the self-service case on February 9 had been prepared that morning. It was two degrees above the safe limit, two hours into what could have been a full day on display. That was the fact the inspector's thermometer recorded, and it was the reason those rolls went into the freezer before any more customers reached for them.