DOVER, FL. Back in March 2026, state agriculture inspectors walked into Country Deli & Grocery and found something that goes beyond a routine food safety citation: products on the retail shelf flagged as containing a controlled substance prohibited under Florida law, alongside a store operating without a valid food permit and no documentation that its septic system met state requirements.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services conducted the inspection on March 3, 2026. By the time inspectors left, they had issued 22 violations, multiple stop sale orders for controlled substance violations, a stop-use order halting all food processing and food service on the premises, and a requirement for re-inspection before the store could return to normal operations.
What Inspectors Found
The most serious finding involved products the inspector identified as containing a controlled substance under Chapter 893 of Florida Statutes. The inspection report cited multiple stop sale orders under that statute, with comments stating the products "contain a controlled substance prohibited pursuant to Chapter 893, Florida Statutes, and may not be" sold. The data does not identify the specific brand names, but the violations appear in the section of the report designated for kratom products.
The store was also operating without a valid food permit. The inspector noted "no provided septic documentation," and issued a stop-use order covering all processing and food service at the location. That is a repeat violation, meaning inspectors had documented the same problem before this March visit.
Hemp extract products on the retail floor carried THC concentrations above the legal 0.3% limit, according to product labeling or certificates of analysis reviewed by the inspector. A stop sale order was issued for those products as well.
The kratom section of the report added more citations. Botanic Tonics, Stax, O.P.M.S., and Remarkable Herbs kratom products were not labeled with the concentration of 7-hydroxymitragynine, a potent compound in kratom, measured in parts per million on a dry-weight basis, as required under a Florida emergency rule. Stop sale orders were issued. Products from O.P.M.S. and Remarkable Herbs were voluntarily discarded and the stop sale was released on site. Botanic Tonics and Stax orders remained in effect.
Various kratom products in capsule and tablet form also lacked a supplement facts panel entirely.
Hemp products drew a separate cluster of violations. Budget, Snipe, and Looper hemp products were sold in packaging that was not child resistant, a requirement for any hemp extract intended for human consumption. Those were voluntarily discarded. Other hemp products were missing expiration dates, batch numbers, serving size information, processor and distributor names, and QR codes linked to independent laboratory certificates of analysis. Several products designed to attract children, described in the report as bearing "the shape of an animal, human, or cartoon; or bears any resemblance to an existing candy product," were also pulled from the shelf.
Hemp extract products intended for inhalation carried two additional violations: no posted sign stating that sales to persons under 21 are prohibited, and no label stating "Not Intended For Ingestion, Do Not Eat."
Away from the hemp and kratom section, inspectors found black mold built up inside the soda machine ice chutes. Those were cleaned and sanitized during the visit. A boiled peanuts spoon was sitting in standing water rather than on a clean surface, and coffee straws and forks on the customer self-service counter were exposed to contamination. Packages of Little Debbie-style snack cakes, including Nutty Buddy, Star Crunch, Oatmeal Creme Pies, Zebra Cakes, Cosmic Brownies, Fudge Rounds, Strawberry Shortcake Rolls, and Christmas Tree Brownies, were being sold individually without proper labeling showing ingredients, common name, net weight, or address. Those were moved behind the counter.
The person in charge could not correctly answer questions about preventing the transmission of foodborne illness. The establishment had no written procedures for employees to follow in the event of a vomiting or diarrhea incident. The thermometer available for use in the processing area was not the required small, thin-tip probe type.
What These Violations Mean
Operating without a valid food permit means the store had not demonstrated to the state that its physical facility, including its septic system, met the basic requirements for safe food handling. When that documentation is absent, there is no verified baseline that the space where food is processed or served is sanitary. The stop-use order on all processing and food service was a direct consequence of that gap.
The controlled substance stop sale orders are categorically different from a labeling infraction. Products flagged under Chapter 893 are prohibited from sale entirely, not pending a label correction. Customers who purchased those products before the inspection had no way of knowing what they contained.
The THC concentration violation on hemp products matters because the 0.3% legal limit exists to distinguish hemp from marijuana under Florida law. Products testing above that threshold are not legally hemp. Selling them without disclosing accurate potency data, or selling them in packaging that children can open, compounds the risk for any household where those products are present.
The kratom labeling violations, particularly the missing 7-hydroxymitragynine concentration, matter because that compound is significantly more potent than the primary kratom alkaloid, mitragynine. Without that figure on the label, a buyer has no way to assess the dose they are taking.
The Longer Record
The inspection history on file for Country Deli & Grocery is brief but pointed. The March 3, 2026 inspection, which produced 22 violations and the controlled substance stop sales, was followed by a re-inspection on April 1, 2026, that showed zero violations.
Two of the March violations were explicitly marked as repeats: the missing food permit and the controlled substance finding. That means inspectors had flagged both issues at a prior visit, and neither had been resolved by the time they returned in March.
The April re-inspection clearing all violations suggests the store addressed the documented issues, at least to the level required for re-inspection sign-off. What the record does not show is whether the stop sale orders that remained open as of the March inspection, specifically those for Botanic Tonics, Stax, and the unlabeled kratom products, were resolved before or after that April visit.