OKEECHOBEE, FL. Back in December 2025, state inspectors walked into Cracker Trail Food Market on the last day of the year and found dead rodents on glue boards under the ice maker, rodent excreta under food storage panels in the retail area, and a store operating without a valid food permit.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services logged 23 violations during the December 30 inspection of the Okeechobee convenience store, including three priority violations and several intermediate-level findings. None were corrected before the inspection began. A re-inspection was required.
What Inspectors Found
The walk-in cooler was the center of the inspection's most serious findings. Inspectors probed packages of cheese, gallons of milk, and a raw pork roast and recorded internal temperatures between 50°F and 52°F, all from previous days. Shell eggs stored in the same cooler registered between 52°F and 54°F. The cooler itself was documented as "in disrepair, not able to maintain 41°F or below," and a stop use order was issued on the unit.
Multiple whole tomatoes inside a box in the walk-in cooler showed a "mold like substance throughout." All tomatoes were voluntarily discarded during the inspection. Packages of raw bacon were found stored alongside gallons of milk inside a small reach-in milk cooler, a cross-contamination violation inspectors corrected on site by moving the bacon to proper storage.
The ice maker carried its own problem: inspectors noted a "mold like substance around chute areas" inside the machine. The chute area was cleaned and sanitized during the inspection.
Rodent evidence appeared in two separate areas. Dead rodents on glue boards were documented under the ice maker in the kitchen. Rodent excreta was found under food storage panels in the retail area. Multiple juices and soda beverages were stored directly on soiled floors inside the walk-in cooler.
The store was also operating without a valid food permit. A supplemental report was issued to management during the visit.
Stop Sale Orders and Discarded Food
Inspectors issued four stop sale orders and one stop use order during the December 30 visit. The stop sale orders covered products under Florida Statute 500.04 and 500.10, citing adulteration and cold holding temperature failures.
The shell eggs, the packages of cheese, the gallons of milk, and the raw pork roast were all voluntarily discarded during the inspection after stop sale orders were issued and subsequently released. The moldy tomatoes were also voluntarily discarded, with the stop sale order released after removal.
The stop use order was applied to the walk-in cooler itself, citing unsanitary equipment under Florida Statute 500.172. The cooler could not maintain the 41°F threshold required for temperature control for safety foods.
What These Violations Mean
A walk-in cooler that cannot hold 41°F is not a minor maintenance issue. Bacterial growth accelerates rapidly in the temperature range between 41°F and 135°F, and foods stored at 50°F to 54°F for hours, or in this case from previous days, accumulate bacterial load that cooking may not fully eliminate and that ready-to-eat products like milk and cheese receive no cooking step to address at all. That is why the shell eggs, cheese, milk, and pork roast at Cracker Trail were discarded rather than returned to shelves.
Raw bacon stored alongside milk in the same cooler represents a direct cross-contamination pathway. Raw animal proteins carry pathogens including Salmonella and E. coli. Ready-to-eat dairy products stored in physical contact with raw meat packaging have no subsequent step that would destroy those pathogens before a customer consumes them.
The rodent excreta found under retail food storage panels is a contamination risk that extends beyond the panels themselves. Rodent droppings carry Salmonella, Hantavirus, and other pathogens, and their presence in a food retail environment indicates an active or recent infestation, not a single isolated event.
Employees who cannot correctly answer questions about foodborne illness symptoms and reportable diseases, a finding documented at Cracker Trail, represent a systemic gap. A sick employee who does not know they are required to report symptoms or stay away from food handling can transmit illness directly to products that customers take home.
The Longer Record
The FDACS inspection record for Cracker Trail Food Market does not include prior inspection counts in the data available for this report. What the December 30 record does show is a facility where the most serious failures were not isolated to one area or one system. The cold holding failure, the rodent evidence, the unlabeled packaged foods, the sewage connection at the three-bay sink, the missing food permit, and the untrained employees were documented across the kitchen, the retail floor, and the walk-in cooler simultaneously.
None of the 23 violations were marked as repeat violations, meaning this was their first documented appearance under the current inspection record. That distinction matters less when a cooler has already failed to the point where food from previous days is sitting at 52°F and a stop use order is required to pull it from service.
The three-bay sink in the kitchen was also found to have a direct connection to the sewage system, a plumbing deficiency that creates a pathway for sewage contamination to reach food preparation surfaces. That violation was not corrected on site.