PANAMA CITY, FL. Back in February 2026, state agriculture inspectors walked into Dodge Store #0910 on a routine sanitation check and found food service employees at the front counter doing something inspectors flagged as a priority violation: handling cash and then serving food without washing their hands before putting on gloves.
The inspector's own words in the report: "Food service employees engaged in cash handling and serving food do not wash hands before donning gloves to initiate tasks that involves working with food." A supervisor on site intervened and asked employees to wash their hands, but the violation had already been documented.
That finding was one of ten violations recorded during the February 11 inspection, including two that were repeat citations from prior visits.
What Inspectors Found
The handwashing sink violations were documented in two separate locations inside the store. The back prep room sink had no paper towels in the dispenser next to the office, and the retail drink area sink had no paper towels next to the drink machines. Employees restocked both dispensers on the spot, and those corrections were noted in the report.
Both the paper towel and the facility cleanliness violations were marked as repeat findings, meaning inspectors had cited the same problems at a previous visit.
The cleanliness citation was specific. Inspectors described "build up of dust and debris" on the ceilings and walls over the three-compartment sink, on the outside of the walk-in freezer, and on the outside of the walk-in cooler, all in the back prep room.
Food storage drew citations as well. One case of chicken fingers was found sitting on the floor of the walk-in freezer. Two cases of potatoes were on the floor of the walk-in cooler. State rules require food to be stored at least six inches above the floor.
The store also could not produce written laboratory analysis confirming the safety of ice produced in the machine used for bagging. The inspector noted the establishment "cannot provide written approved laboratory analysis of ice in ice machine used for bagging ice." That ice is a finished product sold to customers, and the absence of testing records was cited as a violation.
Food service workers throughout the store, both in the front of house and the prep kitchen, were observed without effective hair restraints during food activity. Styrofoam cups were found stored on the floor in the retail area and in the back stock room. The International Delight creamer machine in the retail coffee area had tubing that protruded more than one inch from the dispensing head and had not been cut on the diagonal, as required.
The person in charge could not demonstrate in a verifiable way that employees had been informed of their responsibility to report illnesses or health conditions that could affect food safety. The women's restroom garbage can did not have a lid.
Of the ten violations documented, none were corrected on site at the time of the inspector's initial observations, though employees did add paper towels to both hand wash sinks after the inspector pointed out the problem.
What These Violations Mean
The priority handwashing violation is the most direct food safety concern in this report. When employees handle cash, which carries bacteria from countless surfaces and hands, and then put on gloves without washing first, those gloves are already contaminated before they touch any food. Gloves are not a substitute for handwashing; they are meant to be used over clean hands. The fact that this happened at the food service counter at Dodge Store #0910, where employees were actively serving customers, makes it a direct transmission risk.
The missing laboratory analysis for the bagged ice matters for a specific reason. Ice sold in bags is a finished food product, and without approved lab testing on record, there is no documented confirmation that the ice meets microbial safety standards. If a customer became ill after consuming that ice, there would be no testing baseline to reference.
The repeat citation for paper towels at hand wash sinks compounds the handwashing concern. A sink with no paper towels discourages handwashing in practice, even when employees intend to comply. Two sinks in two separate areas of the store were both without paper towels on the same inspection day, and the same problem had been cited before.
Dust and debris buildup on surfaces near food prep and cold storage equipment is a contamination pathway. The outside surfaces of walk-in units and the area above the three-compartment sink are cleaned regularly in compliant operations specifically because residue there can migrate into food prep zones.
The Longer Record
The February 11, 2026, inspection was not the store's first encounter with state agriculture inspectors. Records show three prior FDACS inspections at this location, all of them focused inspections that resulted in zero violations: one in August 2024, one in May 2025, and one in March 2026, which came after the February inspection that generated this report.
That March 2026 follow-up found no violations, which suggests the store addressed the outstanding issues after February. But the two repeat violations on the February report tell a different story about consistency. A finding marked repeat means inspectors documented the same condition at a prior visit, and it had not been resolved by the next full inspection.
The prior focused inspections, which carry a narrower scope than a full sanitation review, did not surface these issues. The full February inspection did. The pattern that emerges is a store that clears targeted checks but accumulates basic and repeat violations when inspectors conduct a broader review.
None of the ten violations from February 2026 were corrected on site before being cited. The ice machine lab analysis issue, which requires the store to obtain documentation from an approved laboratory, is not the kind of problem that can be fixed in the moment an inspector is standing in the building.