ORLANDO, FL. Back in January 2026, state inspectors walked into Green Hills Food Market, a small grocery store in Orlando, and found soft cheese sitting at 45 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, bacon at 45, and smoked fish ranging from 46 to 47 degrees, all inside a long cooler along the loft side of the store.
The legal limit is 41 degrees.
What Inspectors Found
PRIORITY VIOLATIONS
CORRECTED ON SITE
The temperature problem was not the only priority violation inspectors documented that day. When the inspector asked about sanitizing procedures, the person in charge said they do not use sanitizer. The inspector then attempted to dispense sanitizer from the wall-mounted unit and found it inoperable. A chlorine sanitizer was set up during the visit, tested, and food-contact surfaces were re-sanitized before the inspector left.
That means every cutting board, prep surface, and food-contact utensil in the store had been used without sanitizer for an unknown period of time before that inspection.
The store's manager offered an explanation for the temperature readings. According to the inspection record, the manager believed the cooler had been in defrost mode. The inspector noted in the record: "I advised defrost cannot be so long the food rises above 41 degrees F."
Two additional violations, neither classified as priority, rounded out the inspection. Inspectors found the hand-wash sink in the ware wash area was missing paper towels. They also found gaps at both back doors large enough to allow insects or rodents to enter from outside.
Neither of those two violations was corrected on site.
What These Violations Mean
Temperature violations in a retail grocery setting carry the same risk as they do in a restaurant kitchen, but the exposure is broader. A shopper who picks up smoked fish stored at 46 to 47 degrees has no way of knowing how long that product sat above the safety threshold. Bacteria such as Listeria and Salmonella multiply rapidly in the range between 41 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Smoked fish and soft cheese are among the products that carry the highest Listeria risk, because they are often eaten without further cooking.
The sanitizer finding is a separate category of concern. Sanitizing is the step that kills pathogens that survive ordinary washing. The person in charge at Green Hills Food Market told the inspector they do not use sanitizer at all. Whether that was a misunderstanding of procedure or an actual practice is not clear from the record. What is clear is that the wall-mounted sanitizer unit was inoperable when the inspector tried to use it, and the store had no backup system in place.
The gaps at both back doors represent a different but related risk. A gap large enough to be flagged by an inspector is large enough for cockroaches, flies, and rodents. Pest activity in a grocery store is not just a sanitation problem. Rodents and insects can contaminate open food products, shelving, and the same food-contact surfaces that were already going unsanitized.
The missing paper towels at the hand-wash sink matter because they are what makes hand-washing functional. Without them, employees who wash their hands have no sanitary way to dry them, which reduces the likelihood that hand-washing happens consistently.
The Longer Record
The January 20, 2026 inspection was classified as a routine sanitation inspection, and the store met requirements by the end of the visit, at least for the two priority violations. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services records for Green Hills Food Market do not indicate prior inspections in the data provided for this report, so it is not possible to say whether these violations represent a pattern at this location or an isolated finding.
What the record does show is that neither of the two non-priority violations, the missing paper towels and the gaps at both back doors, were corrected before the inspector left. Those two items remained unresolved as of the inspection date.
The gaps at the back doors are the kind of structural fix that does not happen during an inspection. Whether Green Hills Food Market addressed them after January 20 is not reflected in the available records.
What Was Resolved, and What Was Not
Both priority violations were addressed during the inspection. The cheese was moved to the freezer to rapid chill, the cooler curtains were closed, and the temperature dropped back to 40 degrees. Chlorine sanitizer was set up, tested, and used to re-sanitize food-contact surfaces. Industry guidance was provided to staff.
The hand-wash sink in the ware wash area still had no paper towels when the inspector finished. Both back doors still had gaps to the outside.