, FL. Raw eggs were sitting in a reach-in cooler directly above ready-to-eat beverages at Continental Market when a state inspector arrived on September 24, 2026, one of ten violations documented during the visit.
The inspector noted the eggs were stored "next to rest room door" in the retail cooler, above drinks a customer could pull off the shelf and open without cooking. The violation was corrected on site, with the inspector recording that the eggs were moved to a proper location before the visit ended.
What Inspectors Found
Beyond the egg storage problem, the inspection turned up a cluster of findings tied to the person in charge. The inspector recorded that the person in charge "does not correctly respond to question related to employee health," and separately that the person in charge "was unable to ensure that food employees were informed in a verifiable manner to report their illness and or symptoms relate to diseases that are transmissible through food." Guidance documents were provided at both points.
The store also had no written procedures for responding to a vomit or diarrhea event on the premises. The inspector noted the absence and provided a guidance document during the visit.
No sanitizer test strips were available at the ware wash station. The inspector supplied chlorine test strips on the spot.
Employees in the food service area were not wearing effective hair restraints while working with exposed foods. In the processing area and the backroom restroom, no hand-washing signs were posted at either hand-washing station, though the inspector noted signs were posted before leaving.
Soda crates were being used as shelving inside the walk-in beverage cooler, a surface arrangement the inspector flagged as a nonfood-contact surface not free of unnecessary crevices. Dust had accumulated on the vent and slide trays inside the walk-in cooler. The backroom restroom door had no self-closer installed. A gap at the bottom of the rear white door remained open at the time of the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The raw egg storage finding is the most direct food safety risk in this inspection. Raw eggs can carry Salmonella on their shells and in their contents. Storing them above ready-to-eat beverages, containers a customer handles and drinks directly, creates a pathway for contamination if a shell cracks, liquid drips, or a container is handled after contact with the eggs. The correction happened during the visit, but the arrangement was already in place when the inspector arrived.
The two findings tied to employee illness reporting are less visible to shoppers but carry real weight. When a person in charge cannot correctly answer questions about employee health policy, and cannot verify that workers know which symptoms require them to stay out of the food handling area, the store has no reliable mechanism to keep a sick employee away from the products on its shelves. The inspector provided guidance documents at Continental Market, but documents are not the same as a functioning policy.
The absence of written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures compounds that gap. State food code requires these written procedures because a norovirus or similar pathogen can survive on surfaces and spread to food contact areas if the response is improvised rather than protocol-driven. The inspector left a guidance document here as well.
The gap at the bottom of the rear door is a structural opening. Inspectors flag these because insects and rodents enter through exactly this kind of unprotected space, and a grocery store with open food product is a more attractive target than an empty room.
The Longer Record
The data provided for this inspection does not include a count of prior inspections on record for Continental Market, which limits the ability to place this visit in a longer pattern. What the September 24 inspection does show is a store that met sanitation requirements overall, with ten violations across one priority finding, three priority-foundation findings, and six basic violations, none of them repeats from a prior visit.
The absence of repeat violations means inspectors did not find the same documented problems carried forward from a previous inspection. That is a different picture than a facility where the same citation appears across multiple visits.
What the record does not resolve is whether the person-in-charge knowledge gaps, the missing illness procedures, and the structural issues like the door gap were present before this visit and simply uncited, or whether they are new. Without a prior inspection count and prior violation history, the September findings stand on their own.
What Remains Unresolved
Several violations from the September 24 inspection were corrected before the inspector left. The eggs were moved. Hand-washing signs were posted. Test strips were provided. Those items closed during the visit.
The gap at the bottom of the rear door was not corrected on site. The restroom door still had no self-closer when the inspector departed. Whether the person in charge has since implemented a verifiable employee illness reporting system, or whether written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures are now in place, is not reflected in this inspection record.
