PLANTATION, FL. Back in March 2026, a state inspector walked into a Plantation boba shop and found employee medicines sitting on a shelf directly above a processing table loaded with packaged foods and single-service items.
That was one of 12 violations documented at Boba Tea Shop on University Drive during a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection on March 4, 2026. The shop passed the inspection overall, but the record left behind raises specific questions about food safety knowledge and basic hygiene practices inside the store.
What Inspectors Found
The medicines were corrected on site, the inspector noted. Several other violations were not.
The person in charge at the time of inspection "could not answer questions that relate to foodborne illness," the inspector wrote. The same person could not produce written procedures for employees to follow in the event of a vomit or diarrhea incident on the premises.
The hand-washing sink at the service counter was blocked by items left on the floor in front of it. That violation was also left unresolved at the time of inspection.
Beyond those priority-level findings, the inspector documented a container of liquid sugar stored directly on the floor at the service counter. Packaged foods were also found on the floor at the entrance to the storage room. State food safety standards require food to be stored at least six inches above the floor.
Multiple containers of syrups and flavoring ingredients at the service counter were not labeled to identify their contents. An employee in the processing area was wearing multiple bracelets on their wrist while handling food. A second employee in the same area was not wearing a hair restraint.
The floor in front of and under the ware-wash sink in the backroom had visible soil buildup and sticky food spillage. The shop's only restroom door was not fully self-closing. The establishment also had no certified food protection manager on staff.
What These Violations Mean
The three priority-foundation violations at Boba Tea Shop point to a gap in basic food safety knowledge at the management level. When the person in charge cannot answer questions about preventing foodborne illness, that is not a paperwork problem. It signals that the staff responsible for overseeing food handling may not understand the conditions under which bacteria spread, which foods pose the highest risk, or how to respond when something goes wrong.
The absence of written cleanup procedures for vomit and diarrhea events is directly connected to norovirus transmission. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks, spreads easily through contaminated surfaces. A written cleanup protocol exists specifically to ensure that employees contain the event, use the right disinfectants, and avoid cross-contaminating food contact surfaces. Without one, a single incident in the shop could expose customers to illness.
A blocked hand-washing sink matters for a specific reason: if employees cannot reach the sink easily, they are less likely to wash their hands between tasks. At a boba shop where staff handle raw ingredients, syrups, and finished drinks in close succession, hand hygiene is the most direct barrier between a contamination source and a customer's cup.
Unlabeled syrup and flavor containers at the service counter create a traceability problem. If a customer reports an allergic reaction or illness, staff and investigators need to know exactly what went into a drink. Containers without labels make that reconstruction impossible.
The Longer Record
The March 2026 inspection was only the second time FDACS had formally documented conditions at this location. The first inspection on record, a focused inspection conducted in January 2024, found zero violations.
That clean result in 2024 makes the March 2026 findings harder to explain away as a bad day. A focused inspection with no violations followed roughly 14 months later by 12 violations, including three priority-foundation citations and one priority citation, suggests that conditions at the shop changed, or that the January 2024 review examined a narrower scope of operations.
None of the 12 violations from March 2026 were marked as repeat citations, meaning inspectors had not previously flagged the same specific items. But the shop has only two inspections on record, so the absence of repeat designations reflects a short history more than a clean one.
What Remained Unresolved
Of the 12 violations documented on March 4, 2026, only two were corrected on site: the employee medicines were moved off the shelf above the food prep table, and an employee jacket that had been stored on packaged foods at the prep station was properly relocated.
The other ten violations, including the blocked hand sink, the unlabeled syrup containers, the food stored on the floor, and the person in charge's inability to demonstrate knowledge of foodborne illness prevention, were not corrected during the inspection visit.
The shop passed the inspection overall. Whether those ten open violations were addressed in the days that followed is not reflected in the available inspection record.