BOCA RATON, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors walked into AMG Commerce LLC, a non-perishable food processor on the edge of Palm Beach County, and found that the person in charge could not correctly answer questions about foodborne disease, the symptoms that cause it, or when employees should be restricted from handling food.
That finding, documented in a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection on March 12, 2026, was one of five violations recorded at the facility. None were corrected on site.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's notes on the person in charge were direct: the individual "was unable to correctly respond to questions relating to food borne disease and symptoms that may cause food borne disease" and "was unable to relate to conditions of restriction and exclusion." Restriction and exclusion are the protocols that determine when a sick employee must be kept away from food entirely.
The employee illness problem extended further. The inspector found the facility had no verifiable system in place to ensure food employees reported their illness or symptoms. In a food processing environment, that gap is not procedural, it is a transmission risk.
The facility also had no written procedures for handling accidental vomiting or diarrheal incidents. The inspector noted simply: "Food entity does not have any written procedures to address clean up procedures for accidental vomiting and diarrheal incidents."
In the processing area, inspectors found no chemical sanitizer test kit on the premises. Without one, there is no way to verify whether sanitizing solutions are mixed at concentrations strong enough to kill pathogens, or too weak to do anything at all.
Rounding out the five violations, the facility had no certified food protection manager, meaning no one on staff had passed a recognized food safety exam.
What These Violations Mean
The person-in-charge violations carry particular weight in a food processing facility. A person in charge who cannot correctly identify the symptoms of foodborne illness, or explain when an employee must be excluded from food handling, is not equipped to make the decisions that prevent contaminated product from leaving the building. This is not a paperwork lapse. It is a gap in the chain of oversight that state rules require to be present during every operating hour.
The absence of a verifiable employee illness reporting system compounds that gap. At AMG Commerce, inspectors found no mechanism to confirm that employees were being told, in a documentable way, to report illness before working with food. If a worker shows up sick and no one has been formally trained to recognize that as a problem, the facility has no functional defense against a direct transmission event.
The missing vomiting and diarrheal cleanup procedures matter for a specific reason: norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks, spreads rapidly through contaminated surfaces when a cleanup is handled improperly. Written procedures exist so that every employee, not just a manager, knows exactly what to do in the moment. AMG Commerce had none.
The sanitizer test kit issue is straightforward. Chemical sanitizers used in food processing must fall within a precise concentration range. Too low and they do not kill pathogens. Too high and they can themselves become a contamination risk. Without a test kit, the facility was operating with no way to verify which end of that spectrum its sanitizing solution was on.
The Longer Record
AMG Commerce is a relatively new operation. State records show the first inspections on file were preoperational visits in October and January, all of which the facility passed without violations. Regular operational inspections began in February 2026.
That recent history, however, already shows a pattern worth noting. The February 25 inspection turned up five violations including one repeat citation, the same count as the March 12 visit. A focused inspection on March 2 found no violations, suggesting the facility could meet standards under targeted review. But the routine inspection ten days later found the same cluster of management and procedural failures.
The record takes a sharper turn after March 12. On March 25, 2026, two separate inspections were conducted at the same location. One of those resulted in seven violations and was categorized as an "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit" inspection, a significant flag for any food processing facility. The other March 25 inspection found two violations. Together, the March 25 records represent the most serious single-day compliance picture in AMG Commerce's short operating history.
Unresolved at Inspection's End
None of the five violations documented on March 12 were corrected during the inspection. The person in charge still could not answer basic foodborne illness questions when the inspector left. The facility still had no written illness reporting system, no cleanup procedures for vomiting incidents, and no sanitizer test kit in the processing area.
The facility met the overall sanitation threshold required to remain open, but the violations were recorded as unresolved. As of that March visit, AMG Commerce was processing non-perishable food products in a facility where no one on site held a certified food protection credential.