HOSFORD, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors arrived at First & Last Mart LLC, a convenience store with limited food service on the rural Liberty County stretch of Hosford, and found the establishment operating without a valid food permit, one of 17 violations documented during the visit.
The inspection, conducted March 19, 2026, by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, flagged two priority violations, four priority foundation violations, and a string of basic deficiencies that together painted a picture of a store struggling to meet minimum food safety requirements.
What Inspectors Found
The most direct hazard inspectors recorded involved chemical storage. In the retail area, packaged food was stored directly below hand-washing soap, creating the risk of contamination if the soap dispensed or leaked onto the products below. Inspectors noted the packaged food was removed and relocated during the visit.
The kitchen's handwashing sink presented a different problem. A table holding a pizza oven had been placed so that it was blocking half of the sink, making it inaccessible for employees during food preparation. That violation was not corrected on site.
No paper towels or drying device were available at the retail food counter's handwashing sink, and the employee restroom's handwashing sink had no hot water. Both were addressed during the inspection. The restroom sink issue, the inspector noted, was repaired on the spot.
Structural conditions drew attention throughout the store. The inspector documented holes in the ceiling above the ware wash sink and handwashing sink, under the ware wash sink, and inside the employee restroom. One side of the kitchen floor was not completely sealed. The wall near the entrance door was also noted as not completely sealed.
The cabinet under the fountain drink machine had its own problem. Inspectors described the wood in the right corner showing water damage "with a black mold like substance." The back storage room, the inspector noted, had walls, ceilings, and floor of raw wood and concrete.
Both the kitchen food processing table and the pizza oven table were made of raw wood, a material that cannot be properly sanitized and is not approved for food-contact surfaces under state standards.
Outside the building, a broken mop sink faucet was repaired during the inspection. A separate exterior threaded faucet on the left side of the building had no backflow prevention device installed, a plumbing deficiency that was not corrected on site.
The store had no certified food protection manager on staff. There was also no handwashing signage posted at the kitchen sink, though an industry sign was provided and posted during the visit.
What These Violations Mean
The permit violation is not a technicality. Operating a food establishment without a valid permit means the store had not met the baseline requirements the state uses to verify that a facility is safe to sell food to the public. An application had been submitted, according to the inspection record, but payment of the required fee had not yet been made.
The blocked handwashing sink in the kitchen is one of the more consequential findings in the report. When employees cannot easily access a sink during food preparation, hand hygiene breaks down. At a store where food is being processed, including pizza, that gap creates a direct route for contamination to reach customers.
The absence of a certified food protection manager compounds the risk. That certification exists specifically to ensure someone on site understands food safety requirements and can catch problems before an inspector does. At First & Last Mart, no such person was present.
The mold-like substance inside the fountain drink machine cabinet is a concern for anyone who purchased a fountain drink at the store before or around the inspection date. The cabinet sits directly beneath the dispensing equipment, and water damage creating conditions for mold growth in that location is not a cosmetic issue.
The Longer Record
The March 19 inspection was not the end of the story for First & Last Mart. A follow-up inspection conducted one week later, on March 26, 2026, found two violations remaining, including one repeat. The store was recorded as having met sanitation standards at that point, which allowed it to continue operating.
The repeat violation at the follow-up inspection is notable. It means that at least one deficiency flagged on March 19 was still present seven days later when inspectors returned, suggesting not all corrective action was immediate or thorough.
The inspection history on record for this location is limited to these two visits, both in March 2026. There is no longer track record available to establish whether the structural deficiencies, the raw wood surfaces, or the plumbing issues represent a chronic pattern or conditions that developed more recently.
What the record does show is that when state inspectors first arrived, the store was selling food without a valid permit, its kitchen handwashing sink was partially blocked, and the cabinet beneath its fountain drink machine had visible water damage and a substance inspectors described as mold-like. None of those three conditions were corrected during the March 19 visit.