WINTER HAVEN, FL. Back in December 2025, a state inspector walked into the Dundee Chevron convenience store on Dundee Road and found that eggs sold for cooking to order came with no warning to customers about the risks of undercooked animal products.
That single finding, buried in a five-violation inspection report dated December 9, pointed to a broader problem at the Dundee Chevron: the person in charge could not answer basic questions about foodborne illness when asked by the inspector directly.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector noted that eggs cooked to order in the retail area were not accompanied by any consumer advisory, meaning customers had no written notice that undercooked eggs carry a risk of illness. Florida food code requires that when raw or undercooked animal products are offered for sale or served, establishments must disclose the risk.
The person in charge made things worse. According to the inspection record, that individual was unable to answer questions about foodborne illness when the inspector posed them directly. That is not a paperwork lapse. It is a front-line knowledge gap at the moment a customer's safety most depends on someone knowing what to do.
Paper towels were absent at the handwashing sink in the kitchen area. Without them, employees who wash their hands have no sanitary way to dry them before returning to food handling.
The Repeat Problems
Two of the five violations were flagged as repeat findings, meaning state inspectors had documented the same deficiencies during at least one prior visit.
The first repeat: no written procedures for responding to a vomit or diarrheal discharge on food establishment surfaces. The inspector's language was precise. The establishment lacked documentation addressing "specific actions employees must take to minimize the spread of contamination and the exposure of employees, consumers, food, and surfaces to vomitus or fecal matter." Inspectors had noted this before. It still was not fixed.
The second repeat: no designated area for employees to store personal belongings or change clothing. The inspector noted the back area lacked any such designated space.
Both of these had been cited previously. Neither had been corrected before the December visit.
What These Violations Mean
The missing consumer advisory for cook-to-order eggs is more than a labeling technicality. Eggs cooked to order may be served runny or undercooked at a customer's request, which means the yolk may not reach the temperature needed to kill Salmonella. A consumer advisory gives customers the information they need to make that choice knowingly. Without it, they are making a decision they do not know they are making.
The person-in-charge knowledge gap compounds every other finding on the list. Florida food code requires that whoever is running a food establishment at any given time be able to demonstrate basic understanding of foodborne illness, how it spreads, and what controls prevent it. When that person cannot answer those questions, it means the facility's first line of defense against a contamination event is not functioning.
The absent vomit and diarrheal discharge procedures matter in a convenience store setting specifically. These are high-traffic environments where sick customers pass through constantly. Without a written cleanup protocol, employees have no documented guidance on how to contain a contamination event, what protective equipment to use, or how to prevent cross-contamination to food surfaces and packaging. The fact that this was a repeat violation at Dundee Chevron means the store had already been told to fix it and did not.
The missing paper towels at the handwashing sink are a direct barrier to proper hand hygiene. An employee who washes hands and then touches a cloth towel, their clothing, or the faucet handle to dry off has compromised the wash.
The Longer Record
The December 9 inspection was conducted under the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees grocery and retail food establishments rather than restaurants. The inspection type was listed as a standard sanitation inspection, and the facility's overall result was listed as having met sanitation inspection requirements, meaning it was not ordered closed.
That outcome, however, does not erase the two repeat violations in the record. A violation marked repeat means an inspector documented the same problem on a previous visit, gave the facility notice, and returned to find it unresolved. At Dundee Chevron, that happened twice in the same December inspection, once for the vomit cleanup procedures and once for the employee dressing area.
None of the five violations documented in December were corrected on site during the inspection. The record shows zero corrected-on-site notations for any of the five findings.
The person in charge's inability to answer basic foodborne illness questions, combined with two unresolved repeat violations and zero on-site corrections, left the December inspection record with five open findings when the inspector walked out the door.
