TAMPA, FL. Back in January 2026, state inspectors visiting A&M Fuel Mart on the convenience store floor found grain insects living inside packages of rice sitting on a retail aisle shelf, available for purchase.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection, conducted January 13, 2026, produced 17 total violations, including two priority violations and two citations the store had already been warned about on a prior visit. Inspectors issued six separate stop-sale orders before leaving.
What Inspectors Found
The adulterated rice was the most urgent finding. The inspector's notes read: "Grain insects observed in packages of rice in retail aisle." The packages were voluntarily discarded and a stop-sale order was issued under Florida food safety statutes prohibiting the sale of adulterated food.
Raw shell eggs were stored on a shelf above milk cartons in the counter reach-in cooler, a cross-contamination risk. Inspectors noted the eggs were relocated to the bottom shelf before they left.
Various chemicals were stored on a shelf above single-service items in the retail aisle. The inspector noted the shelving was rearranged on site, but the fact that the arrangement existed at all was cited as a priority violation.
The Kratom and Hemp Problems
A significant portion of the January inspection focused on kratom and hemp extract products, which generated four of the six stop-sale orders.
Hemp extract products were held beyond their expiration dates. That violation was marked repeat, meaning inspectors had flagged the same issue before. The products were voluntarily discarded.
Kratom products drew two separate citations. The inspector found that kratom products were "not labeled with the concentration of 7-hydroxymitragynine in PPM on a dry-weight basis," a requirement under Florida's emergency rule 5KER25-6. Separately, kratom capsule products lacked a supplement facts panel on the packaging, violating Chapter 500 of Florida law. Both product sets were discarded under stop-sale orders citing misbranding.
The store was also operating without a valid 2026 food permit. That violation was also marked repeat. It was not corrected on site.
What These Violations Mean
Grain insects in packaged retail food are not a cosmetic problem. Infested packages indicate storage conditions that allowed pests to enter and reproduce, and they signal the food is adulterated under Florida law, meaning it is unfit for sale or consumption. A customer who purchased one of those rice packages before the inspection had no way of knowing the product was compromised.
The kratom and hemp labeling violations carry a different kind of risk. Kratom contains active compounds, including 7-hydroxymitragynine, that affect the body at varying concentrations. Florida's labeling rules exist so consumers can make informed decisions about dosage and content. Products sold without that information give buyers no basis for knowing what they are actually consuming. The stop-sale orders issued here covered both the concentration labeling failure and the missing supplement facts panel.
The direct connection between the sewage system and the three-compartment sink, noted by inspectors in the warewashing area, is a plumbing hazard that can allow sewage gases or backflow to contaminate surfaces used to clean food-contact equipment. That violation was not corrected during the inspection.
Operating without a valid food permit means the store had not been cleared by regulators to sell food under current standards. A permit is not a formality. It is the mechanism by which the state confirms a facility has met baseline requirements. Selling food without one removes that checkpoint entirely.
The Longer Record
FDACS records on file for this location show two prior inspections before January 2026. A focused inspection in April 2023 found zero violations. A second focused inspection in February 2026, conducted after the January visit, also found zero violations.
That follow-up result is notable. It suggests the store addressed enough of the January findings to pass a focused review five weeks later. Focused inspections, however, are narrower in scope than a full operating inspection and do not necessarily examine every category that produced violations in January.
The two repeat violations from January, the expired hemp extract and the lapsed food permit, are the detail that complicates any simple improvement narrative. A repeat citation means inspectors documented the same problem on at least one previous visit and found it unresolved on return. The hemp extract expiration issue had already been identified before January 13, and the products were still on the shelf.
Zero violations were corrected on site across the full 17-count list, according to the inspection record. Several items were voluntarily discarded or rearranged during the visit, but the broader findings, including the missing mop sink, the sewage plumbing issue, the absent thermometer in the reach-in cooler, and the lapsed permit, remained unresolved when the inspector left.