JACKSONVILLE, FL. Back in January 2026, state inspectors walked into a Jacksonville liquor store and found it open for business without a valid food permit, cleaning chemicals in a spray bottle stored directly above beverages in the back room, and no written plan for handling a vomiting or diarrheal emergency on the premises.
The inspection of Dunn Liquor, a minor outlet with perishables on the city's north side, was conducted on January 13, 2026, by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The visit was triggered by an operating-without-a-valid-food-permit check, and the store met the basic sanitation threshold, but not before inspectors documented six violations, including one priority violation.
What Inspectors Found
The most immediate finding was in the back room. The inspector noted that cleaning chemicals in a spray bottle were stored directly above beverages. That violation, classified as a priority, was corrected on the spot: staff relocated the chemicals to an appropriate place before the inspector left.
The store was also operating without a valid food permit. The inspector noted that an initial inspection request had been submitted prior to the visit, suggesting the permit process was already in motion. Still, the store was open and selling perishables without that authorization in place.
Inspectors also found no handwashing sign posted in the restroom. That, too, was corrected during the inspection, with a sign posted before the inspector wrapped up. The restroom door lacked a self-closing mechanism, and there was no covered trash receptacle in the unisex restroom.
The Missing Emergency Plan
One violation that could not be corrected on the spot was the absence of written procedures for handling vomiting and diarrheal events. The inspector noted: "This food establishment does not have the required written procedures for the clean-up of vomiting and diarrheal events that address the specific actions to be taken to minimize the spread of contamination." The inspector provided a guidance document during the visit, but a document handed over at inspection is not the same as a trained, practiced protocol already in place.
None of the six violations were marked as repeat findings. The store had no prior inspection record in the data.
What These Violations Mean
The priority violation, chemicals stored above beverages, carries a direct contamination risk. Spray bottles containing cleaning agents can leak, drip, or tip. If that happens above an open or loosely sealed beverage container, the product reaches a customer without any visible sign of contamination. That is why state code requires chemicals to be stored below and away from food and drink, not adjacent to them or above them.
The missing vomiting and diarrheal event plan is not a paperwork technicality. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads rapidly through aerosolized particles when someone vomits in an enclosed space. A retail food establishment without a written cleanup protocol, one that specifies which disinfectants to use, how to contain the area, and how to dispose of contaminated materials, leaves employees without guidance at the exact moment speed and containment matter most. Dunn Liquor had no such plan on file when inspectors arrived.
Operating without a valid food permit means the store had not yet been cleared by the state to sell perishable food to the public. The permit process exists to verify that a facility meets baseline food safety standards before it opens. Selling perishables without that clearance means customers were purchasing food items from a location the state had not yet formally approved.
The Longer Record
The January 13 inspection was conducted specifically because the store was operating without a valid food permit, which suggests it was a relatively new or newly permitted operation at the time. The data contains no prior inspection history for this location, which means this was, by available records, the first time state inspectors formally documented conditions inside the store.
A facility with no inspection history and six violations on its first recorded visit, including a priority chemical storage issue and a missing emergency response plan, is not necessarily a facility in crisis. But it is a facility that had not yet established the basic compliance habits that come with a longer inspection record. The two violations that were not corrected on site, the restroom door and the covered trash receptacle, remained unresolved when the inspector left.
Whether those two items were addressed in the days following the January inspection is not reflected in the available records.