LUTZ, FL. Back in March 2026, a state inspector walked into a Lutz convenience store and found prepackaged boiled eggs and deli-wrapped items sitting at 48 degrees Fahrenheit inside an open air cooler that wasn't doing its job. The problem had a familiar look: it was a repeat violation.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspected Circle K #1866, a convenience store on the limited food service license in Pasco County, on March 16, 2026. The inspection turned up five violations, including one priority citation and one marked as a repeat of a previously documented problem.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's notes on the temperature problem were direct: "Internal temperature of prepackaged boiled eggs and deli wrap recently placed in open air cooler measures 48 F." Safe cold-holding requires food to stay at 41 degrees or below. These products were seven degrees above that threshold.
The same cooler was the source of the equipment citation. The inspector noted the "open air cooler not maintaining foods at 41 F or below," and a repair technician arrived to adjust the unit while the inspection was still underway.
The warewashing area produced two additional concerns. Inspectors found an uncovered floor drain beneath the three-compartment sink and, above the soda syrup racks, a hole in a ceiling tile where pipes and wires pass up into the ceiling. Neither was described as corrected on site.
The fifth citation involved handwashing access. The inspector noted there was "no handwashing sink in area," with the nearest sink located in an adjacent processing area rather than in the warewashing space itself.
What These Violations Mean
The cold-holding failure is the most consequential finding from this inspection. Boiled eggs and prepared deli items are time-and-temperature control for safety foods, meaning bacterial growth accelerates quickly when they move above 41 degrees. At 48 degrees, products that have been sitting for any length of time can accumulate enough bacterial load to cause illness.
The repeat classification makes it worse. This was not a first-time equipment hiccup that the store caught before a regulator arrived. State records show the same category of violation was documented before, meaning Circle K #1866 had already been put on notice about cold-holding failures.
The missing handwashing sink in the warewashing area is a separate concern. When employees handling food or food-contact surfaces cannot wash their hands at a conveniently located sink, the practical result is that handwashing gets skipped. The inspector marked this as a priority foundation violation, meaning it is the kind of structural gap that enables other problems.
The hole in the ceiling tile over the soda syrup racks is a pest and contamination pathway. Gaps where pipes and wires enter ceiling spaces give rodents and insects a route into the food storage and prep areas. It is a basic violation, but one that tends to matter more over time if left unaddressed.
The Longer Record
The inspection history at this location is thin but telling. State records show only one prior FDACS inspection on file: a focused inspection on September 2, 2023, which turned up zero violations.
That clean record makes the March 2026 findings more notable, not less. In the roughly two and a half years between the 2023 focused inspection and the March 2026 sanitation inspection, the store accumulated a repeat priority violation in the same cold-holding category. Whatever corrective action followed the earlier inspection did not prevent the problem from recurring.
A facility with only two inspections on record offers limited data for trend analysis. But the trajectory here goes from zero violations to five, including a repeat on the most serious finding documented.
What Was Corrected, and What Was Not
The inspection record shows zero violations were corrected on site in the formal sense, though the notes describe two responses that happened during the inspection itself. The temperature-control problem was addressed by moving the out-of-temperature products to a freezer to quick-chill them back to 41 degrees or below before returning them to proper refrigeration or discarding them. A repair technician arrived and adjusted the malfunctioning cooler while the inspector was still present.
The three remaining violations, the uncovered floor drain, the hole in the ceiling tile, and the missing handwashing sink in the warewashing area, were not described as resolved during the visit. The store met sanitation inspection requirements overall, which means it was not ordered closed, but those structural and maintenance deficiencies were still unresolved when the inspector left.
The ceiling tile over the soda syrup racks still had a hole in it.