LAKE CITY, FL. Back in January 2026, a state inspector walked into JB's Boba & Smoothies, a health food store and smoothie shop on the north side of Columbia County, and documented an employee making drinks without washing their hands first.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services conducted the inspection on January 20. The inspector's notes are direct: "Employee not washing hands before making drinks, discussed with owner and corrected." That finding was flagged as a priority violation, meaning inspectors consider it one of the most serious categories of food safety risk.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection logged four violations in total, two of them priority-level. The second priority violation involved milk sitting in a reach-in cooler with no date markings. The inspector noted: "Milk in reach in cooler had no date markings. COS - Date was determined and applied during inspection." That one was resolved before the inspector left.
The handwashing violation was discussed with the owner during the visit, but the inspector's record does not indicate it was formally corrected on site in the same way. No corrected-on-site count appears in the inspection summary.
Employees in the food processing area were also observed not wearing hair restraints, a basic violation. That finding was not marked as corrected during the inspection.
The Repeat Problem
The most stubborn finding from January was one the inspector had seen before. The notation reads: "No Certified Food Protection Manager." It carried a repeat designation, meaning the same deficiency was on record from a prior inspection.
JB's Boba & Smoothies is required under Florida food safety rules to have at least one employee who has passed a state-recognized food protection manager certification exam. As of the January visit, that requirement had not been met, and it had not been met the last time inspectors came through either.
That is not a paperwork technicality. A certified food protection manager is the person responsible for knowing and enforcing safe food handling, temperature control, and sanitation practices across the entire operation. When that position is vacant, there is no designated person accountable for the standards that prevent customers from getting sick.
What These Violations Mean
The handwashing violation is the kind of finding that carries the most direct risk for anyone who ordered a drink at JB's that day. Hands carry bacteria and viruses. An employee who moves between surfaces, handles packaging, or touches their face before preparing a drink can transfer pathogens directly into the cup. The inspector caught it, discussed it with the owner, and it stopped, but it had already been happening.
The undated milk violation is a separate concern. Date marking on ready-to-eat, temperature-controlled foods like dairy exists so that staff can track how long a product has been open and whether it has moved past the point where it is safe to use. Without a date on the container, there is no way to know. The inspector determined the correct date during the visit and had it applied, which resolved the immediate problem. But the fact that the milk was already in the cooler without a label means it had been there for some undetermined period before anyone flagged it.
The missing certified food protection manager connects both of those findings. A qualified manager on site is more likely to catch a handwashing lapse before an inspector does, and more likely to enforce date-marking procedures as a daily habit rather than a correction made under observation. The repeat citation suggests the shop has gone through at least two inspection cycles without filling that role.
The Longer Record
The January 2026 visit was not the first time state inspectors documented problems at this location. Records show a prior FDACS inspection on November 19, 2024, that also found four violations, including one repeat. That inspection was classified as a preoperational review, meaning the shop was going through the process of opening or reopening at the time.
Two inspections. Both with four violations. Both with a repeat citation. The certified food protection manager deficiency appears to have carried from the preoperational inspection straight through to the routine sanitation check more than a year later.
The shop did meet sanitation inspection requirements in January 2026, meaning it was not ordered to close and was allowed to continue operating. But meeting the minimum threshold for staying open is not the same as resolving every finding. Two of the four violations from January were not marked as corrected on site, and the repeat citation for the missing food protection manager remained unresolved when the inspector walked out the door.