SEBRING, FL. Inspectors visiting La Hacienda Supermarket Taqueria on North Ridgewood Drive on August 19 found food from an unapproved or unknown source being used in the kitchen, a violation that means the facility was serving customers food that had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source citation is among the most serious a food service establishment can receive. When food enters a kitchen outside the regulated supply chain, there is no inspection record, no traceability, and no way to identify where it came from if a customer gets sick.
Alongside that, inspectors cited the facility for food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep tables, and similar surfaces that touch food directly are a primary route for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. That violation covers scenarios ranging from cleaning products stored above food prep areas to containers without labels, either of which can result in accidental contamination.
The remaining high-severity citations covered required procedures for specialized processes not being followed, improper handwashing technique by employees, and no written employee health policy. The intermediate violation involved multi-use utensils that had not been properly cleaned.
What These Violations Mean
The food from an unapproved source citation carries a specific danger that goes beyond the moment of inspection. If a customer becomes ill after eating at the facility, investigators tracing the source of contamination need a paper trail. Food purchased outside licensed distributors, brought in from unlicensed processors, or sourced in ways that cannot be documented leaves that trail cold.
The absence of an employee health policy is a structural failure, not a paperwork one. Without a written policy, there is no mechanism to send home a worker showing symptoms of Norovirus or Hepatitis A. Both spread through food handled by infected workers, and both can circulate through dozens of customers before the source is identified.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk directly. A worker who attempts to wash their hands but does so incorrectly, using insufficient time, skipping soap, or not reaching all surfaces, still transfers pathogens to every item they touch afterward.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces mean that bacteria from one prep task survive on the cutting board or table into the next. That is how Salmonella from raw chicken reaches a ready-to-eat item without any direct contact between the two. The intermediate violation for multi-use utensils works the same way: utensils that develop bacterial biofilms resist standard rinsing and carry contamination from one use to the next.
The Longer Record
August 19 was not an aberration. State records show 24 inspections on file for this facility and 162 total violations accumulated across that history.
The eight most recent prior inspections, dating back to January 2024, each produced high-severity violations. The counts from those visits: five high-severity in February 2025, six high-severity in September 2025, five high-severity in February 2026, and three high-severity in March 2026. There has not been an inspection in that stretch that came back clean.
The facility was emergency-closed once before, in August 2022, after inspectors found roach and rodent activity. It reopened the following day.
The pattern across inspections is not one of isolated incidents. High-severity violations have appeared at this address in every inspection year on record. The August 19 visit, with six high-severity citations including food from an unknown source, fits the shape of what inspectors have found here repeatedly, not a sudden departure from an otherwise acceptable record.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented all seven violations on August 19 and left the facility open.
Florida law permits emergency closure when an inspector determines an immediate threat to public health exists. The six high-severity violations at La Hacienda on August 19, including an unverifiable food source and no mechanism to keep sick employees out of the kitchen, did not meet that threshold, at least not in the judgment applied that day.
The taqueria at 825 N. Ridgewood Drive was operating with 162 violations in its history, a prior emergency closure for pests, and a record of high-severity findings at every recent inspection.
It remained open.
