HIALEAH GARDENS, FL. Back in February 2026, a state inspector walked into a small Hialeah Gardens grocery store and found raw bacon stored directly above cabbage and cucumber inside a retail reach-in cooler, a violation that put fresh produce in contact with the drip risk of raw animal protein.
The inspection of L & A Market Corp, a grocery store under 15,000 square feet, took place on February 13, 2026. State inspectors with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services documented 8 total violations, including 1 priority violation, 1 repeat violation, and several intermediate-level findings that pointed to gaps in how the store's staff understood and managed food safety responsibilities.
The store ultimately met sanitation inspection requirements that day, but none of the violations were formally corrected on site, with one exception noted in the raw meat finding.
What Inspectors Found
The priority violation, raw bacon stored directly above cabbage and cucumber, was addressed during the inspection. The inspector noted the bacon was moved to an appropriate location while the visit was still underway.
The store also had no ambient air thermometer available for the reach-in cooler displaying milk in the retail area, meaning there was no way for staff to verify that the cooler was maintaining safe temperatures without a probe thermometer check.
The backroom had paper towels missing at the employee restroom handwashing sink. The inspector noted that paper towels were provided during the visit, making that one of the few items resolved the same day.
A Repeat Problem at the Top
The most structurally significant finding was not the raw bacon. It was the repeat citation.
Inspectors flagged that the store still did not have a certified food protection manager, and that no certificate was available at the time of the inspection. The word "repeat" in the inspection record means state inspectors had cited L & A Market Corp for this same deficiency before, and the store had not resolved it between visits.
A certified food protection manager is not a minor paperwork requirement. It is the person responsible for knowing whether the store's food handling, storage, and employee practices actually meet state standards. Without one, there is no designated point of accountability when something goes wrong.
Staff Could Not Answer Basic Food Safety Questions
Three of the eight violations pointed to the same underlying problem: the people running the store on the day of inspection did not appear to have a working knowledge of food safety fundamentals.
The person in charge could not correctly answer questions about foodborne illnesses, their symptoms, or employee reporting responsibilities. The inspector noted that an employee health guide and reporting agreement were provided via email following the inspection.
Separately, the store had no documentation showing that employees had been informed of their reporting responsibilities regarding foodborne illness and symptoms in any verifiable way. No training records, no signed agreements, no confirmation that the conversation had ever taken place.
The store also had no written policy for responding to a vomit or diarrheal event on the premises. The inspector noted that guidance was provided via email. These three findings together describe a store where the basic framework for managing a food safety incident was not in place.
What These Violations Mean
The raw bacon violation is the one that draws the eye, and for good reason. Raw animal proteins carry bacteria including Salmonella and Campylobacter. When raw meat is stored above ready-to-eat produce like cabbage or cucumber, any drip or leak from the packaging falls directly onto food that a customer may take home and eat without cooking. The fact that the bacon was moved during the inspection does not undo however long it had been stored that way before the inspector arrived.
The missing thermometer in the milk cooler is a quieter problem with real consequences. Without a working ambient thermometer, store staff cannot confirm that dairy products are staying at or below 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature drift in a retail cooler can happen gradually, and without a visible reading, no one catches it until a product is already compromised.
The three violations tied to staff knowledge and illness reporting are interconnected. If the person in charge cannot correctly explain when a sick employee should be excluded from food handling, and if employees have never been formally told what symptoms require them to stay home, the store has no functional barrier against a sick worker handling food that goes directly onto shelves. That is the scenario at the center of many retail foodborne illness outbreaks.
The Longer Record
The repeat citation for the missing certified food protection manager is the clearest signal in this inspection record. A repeat violation means the state had already identified this gap, the store had an opportunity to fix it, and when inspectors returned, the problem was still there.
The February 2026 inspection resulted in the store meeting sanitation requirements overall, which means inspectors did not find conditions severe enough to warrant closure or a stop-sale order. But meeting the minimum threshold and having a fully functional food safety program are not the same thing.
Seven of the eight violations cited in February remained unresolved at the time the inspection concluded. The raw bacon was moved. Paper towels were restocked. The certified food manager certificate, the staff training documentation, the illness reporting policy, the thermometer, and the cluttered backroom were not corrected on site.