BELLE GLADE, FL. Back in December 2025, when a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspector walked into Lilina Food Mart on a routine operating-without-a-permit check, the store was open, stocked, and selling food to customers without a valid food permit on file.
That single fact set the tone for everything that followed.
The December 8 inspection turned up 15 violations in total, including one priority violation, two priority-foundation violations, and two stop sale orders. None of the violations were corrected on site in the formal sense, though inspectors documented a handful of voluntary actions taken during the visit itself.
What Inspectors Found
The priority violation centered on the walk-in cooler. Prepackaged milk displayed for sale had an internal temperature of 44 degrees Fahrenheit, three degrees above the 41-degree maximum required by law. The inspector issued a stop sale order, and the milk was voluntarily discarded during the visit.
A second stop sale order was issued for unlabeled packaged ice that the store had been packaging on site without required labeling. The ice was also voluntarily discarded, and the store told the inspector it would discontinue packaging ice going forward.
Chocolate wafers and crackers on the retail shelf were not labeled for individual retail sale, a separate labeling violation. The inspector had those items moved behind the service counter during the visit.
The walk-in cooler had additional problems beyond the temperature reading. Standing water was found on the floor inside the unit, and a black mold-like substance was visible on the cooler door. The standing water was removed during the visit, but the mold-like growth was not addressed.
The physical condition of the store itself drew multiple citations. The inspector documented missing and damaged floor tiles throughout the establishment, stained ceiling tiles throughout, peeling paint on the wall next to the reach-in ice freezer, and an actively leaking roof. The inspector noted that roof repairs were pending on county permits.
Light was coming in under a window air conditioning unit on the north side wall, an opening that leaves the store exposed to insects and rodents. The wall juncture along the north wall was also unsealed.
The employee restroom in the back of the store lacked a self-closing door, had no covered trash receptacle, and had no paper towels or hand drying device at the sink. The store also had no written procedures for cleaning up vomiting or diarrheal events, a document that inspectors provided on the spot.
Shelving throughout the store was described as dirty, and soiled cardboard was being used to display chips. Unsealed wood was being used as shelving for supplements.
The dumpster outside the store was sitting on grass rather than on a paved or otherwise sealed surface.
What These Violations Mean
The cold holding failure at Lilina Food Mart is the violation with the most direct consequence for anyone who bought milk there before the December inspection. Milk stored at 44 degrees rather than 41 degrees is in a temperature range where bacteria multiply more rapidly. Customers who purchased milk from that cooler before inspectors arrived had no way of knowing the product had not been held at the required temperature.
The unlabeled packaged food violations, both for the store-packaged ice and the chocolate wafers and crackers, matter for a specific reason: labeling requirements exist so that consumers know what they are buying, where it came from, and whether it meets federal food safety standards. Food sold without required labeling cannot be traced if a product recall is issued or if someone becomes ill.
Operating without a valid food permit is not a paperwork technicality. The permit process is how the state establishes that an establishment meets baseline sanitation and safety standards before it opens to the public. A store operating without one has, by definition, not had that baseline confirmed.
The black mold-like substance on the walk-in cooler door is a contamination risk for everything stored in that unit. A cooler door with visible mold growth that contacts food packaging on the way in and out of the cooler is a direct pathway for contamination.
The Longer Record
The December 8 inspection was categorized as an "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit, Met Sanitation" inspection, meaning the visit was triggered specifically because the store was found to be operating without a current permit. That framing matters: inspectors were not there for a routine scheduled visit but because the store had already come to the agency's attention for a compliance failure.
None of the 15 violations documented were marked as repeat violations, which means the inspection record available does not show these same citations appearing in a prior visit. That is worth noting, but it does not resolve the underlying condition of the facility, particularly the structural issues, the leaking roof, and the mold-like growth on the cooler door.
The roof, by the store's own account to the inspector, was already a known problem with county permits pending for repairs. That means the leaking roof was not something discovered for the first time on December 8.
As of the inspection record, zero violations were formally corrected on site. The voluntary discarding of the milk and the ice, and the relocation of unlabeled crackers and wafers, happened during the visit, but the facility's structural problems, the mold on the cooler door, the unsealed wall juncture, the gap under the north wall air conditioner unit, and the missing self-closing door on the employee restroom all remained unresolved when the inspector left.
