MORRISTON, FL. Back in January 2026, a state inspector visiting Big Pineapple Country Store on a routine check found that the Levy County convenience store could not produce a written procedure for responding to a vomiting or diarrheal event on the premises. The inspector's own notes put it plainly: "Food establishment could not provide a written procedure for responding to the cleanup of a vomiting and diarrheal event."
That was one of ten violations documented during the January 15 inspection, including one priority violation, two priority foundation violations, and three citations the store had already received before.
What Inspectors Found
The most serious single finding involved the plumbing at the pizza preparation area. The hand nozzle attached to the ware washing sink was hanging below the flood rim level of the basin, a condition that creates a potential pathway for contaminated water to be drawn back into the clean water supply. The inspector noted the nozzle was adjusted before the inspection closed, making it the only priority violation corrected on site.
The store also had no active certified food protection manager certificate. That means no one on staff had documentation showing they had passed the required food safety examination.
In the retail area, a sticky fly trap was hanging on the side of the pizza preparation area, where it could allow trapped insects to fall onto food contact surfaces. It was relocated during the inspection. A box of single-use hinged containers sat directly on the floor, and an employee sweater was stored on the side of a storage rack holding boxes of single-use spoons and cups, a repeat violation.
The store also lacked the required proof-of-age signage for both hemp extract products and kratom products sold for human consumption. Both signs were posted before the inspector left. No handwash sign was present at the pizza area hand wash station, another repeat finding that was corrected during the visit.
What These Violations Mean
The two priority foundation violations, the missing vomit and diarrheal event cleanup plan and the absence of verifiable employee health reporting, speak to the same underlying gap. If an employee comes to work sick with a gastrointestinal illness and there is no system in place to identify and remove that person, the illness can move directly to customers through food handling. The state requires these procedures to be written and available precisely because verbal policies are impossible to verify or enforce during an inspection.
The written cleanup plan for vomiting and diarrheal events matters because norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness, spreads aggressively through surface contamination. A convenience store with a pizza preparation area is a food-handling environment, not just a retail shelf operation. Without a documented procedure, staff may not know how to contain or disinfect the area properly.
The air gap violation at the ware washing sink is a plumbing cross-connection concern. When a hose or nozzle hangs below the flood rim of a basin, a drop in water pressure can create backflow, pulling whatever is in the basin back into the water supply line. In a food preparation sink, that basin may contain food residue, cleaning chemicals, or standing water. The fix here was straightforward, but the risk while the condition existed was real.
The missing certified food manager certificate compounds all of these findings. A certified manager is the person responsible for knowing the rules, training staff, and catching problems before an inspector does. Without one, the store was operating its food service operation without a designated, credentialed person in charge of food safety oversight.
The Longer Record
The January 2026 inspection was not the first time state inspectors had flagged problems at this location. Records show seven prior FDACS inspections dating back to April 2024, and the pattern is uneven.
The store passed cleanly in April and June of 2024, drawing zero violations across three visits. Then, in July 2024, inspectors returned and documented 15 violations under a finding of operating without a valid food permit. That is the highest single-visit violation count in the store's available history.
A focused check-back in April 2025 found zero violations. But by January 2026, the store had accumulated ten violations again, three of them repeats. Two more inspections in March 2026 show five violations with two repeats, and a separate focused inspection that same day found a failure to renew the food permit, with one repeat violation noted.
The repeat citations are the sharpest part of the record. The hemp extract age signage, the handwash sign in the pizza area, and the physical facilities maintenance issue had all been cited before January 2026 and were cited again. The permit lapse in July 2024 and again in March 2026 suggests a recurring administrative compliance problem alongside the physical violations.
None of the violations from the January 15 inspection were corrected on site except the plumbing nozzle adjustment, the fly trap relocation, and the three signage postings. The missing food manager certificate, the absent employee health reporting documentation, and the written vomit cleanup procedure were all unresolved when the inspector left.