DELAND, FL. Back in March 2026, a state inspector walked into Crumbl Cookie on State Road 15 and asked the person in charge basic questions about foodborne illness prevention. The manager couldn't answer them.
That finding, recorded during a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection on March 9, 2026, anchored a seven-violation report at the DeLand retail bakery. The facility ultimately met sanitation inspection requirements, but the record of what inspectors found before corrections were made tells a more complicated story.
What Inspectors Found
The person in charge could not respond correctly to questions about preventing foodborne illness, the inspector noted. A separate but related finding stated that the manager also failed to ensure food employees were informed "in a verifiable manner" of their responsibility to report health conditions and activities that could spread foodborne illness. The inspector provided a Conditional Employee or Food Employee Reporting Agreement form as guidance.
Neither of those two violations was corrected on site.
In the kitchen reach-in cooler, the inspector found containers of milk, pasteurized eggs, cream cheese, and sour cream that had been opened on March 6, three days before the inspection, with no date labels attached. Labels were applied during the visit. Also in the mixing area, scoops used across several dry ingredient bins were stored with their handles touching the food inside, a practice that transfers hand contamination directly into ingredients. Staff repositioned the scoops before the inspector left.
The sanitizer situation was also notable. The bakery was using DODECYLBENZENE SULFONIC ACID as its sanitizer but had quaternary test strips on hand, which can't accurately measure that chemical's concentration. Management purchased bleach and chlorine test strips during the inspection itself.
The facility had no written procedures for responding to vomiting or diarrheal events on the premises. An inspector guidance document was provided.
What These Violations Mean
The two "person in charge" violations are classified as Priority Foundation findings, which means they represent gaps in the knowledge and systems that underpin every other food safety practice in the building. A manager who cannot correctly answer questions about foodborne illness prevention is not equipped to catch or correct problems before they reach customers. At a retail bakery where products are sold directly to the public, that knowledge gap has direct consequences.
The employee health reporting failure compounds that risk. When workers are not formally told, in a way the business can verify, that they must report symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea to management, a sick employee can continue handling food without anyone in authority knowing. The inspector provided a standard reporting agreement form, but the underlying training gap was not resolved during the inspection.
The unlabeled dairy products, including cream cheese and sour cream opened three days before the inspection, represent a traceability failure. Date labels exist so that staff and inspectors can verify how long a time-temperature controlled product has been in use. Without them, there is no way to confirm whether a product is still within its safe use window, and no record to consult if a customer later reports illness.
Using the wrong test strips for the sanitizer in use is a quieter but serious problem. If staff cannot accurately measure sanitizer concentration, they cannot confirm that surfaces and equipment are actually being sanitized to the level required to kill pathogens. The fix, buying bleach and matching test strips, was made on the spot, but the question of how long the mismatch had existed before the inspection went unaddressed.
The Longer Record
State records show one prior inspection on file for this DeLand Crumbl Cookie location. That limits the ability to draw conclusions about long-term patterns, but the March 2026 findings still carry weight on their own.
Four of the seven violations were Priority Foundation level, the category reserved for procedural and knowledge failures that support all other food safety practices. Finding that concentration in a single inspection at a retail bakery, with no prior violations to compare against, suggests the location had not established strong food safety fundamentals before the inspector arrived.
None of the seven violations were marked as repeat citations, and the facility ultimately met sanitation inspection requirements. But two of the most serious findings, the manager's inability to answer foodborne illness questions and the failure to ensure employees understood their health reporting obligations, were not corrected during the inspection itself.
Those two gaps remained open when the inspector left on March 9, 2026.