JACKSONVILLE, FL. Back in January 2026, a state inspector walked into the Love's Travel Stop #828 in Jacksonville and found cheesy pepper sausage being offered to customers at an internal temperature of 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, well short of the 135-degree threshold required before food can be served safely.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services conducted the inspection on January 29, 2026. Inspectors documented five violations in total, including two classified as priority violations and two flagged as repeats of problems found in a prior visit.
What Inspectors Found
The sausage violation was the most direct food safety concern of the visit. The inspector noted that the cheesy pepper sausage "did not finish heating process before offering to consumer," with an internal temperature reading between 100 and 104 degrees. The item was reheated to above 135 degrees during the inspection, so it was corrected on site, but only after the inspector intervened.
The second priority violation occurred in the Bojango's food processing area inside the travel stop. An employee was observed not washing hands before putting on gloves. The inspector discussed the issue with the person in charge, and hands were washed at that point.
Neither of those corrections happened before the inspector arrived.
The hair restraint violation was a repeat. The inspector again found an employee in the Bojango's food processing area working without a hat, hair covering, or net. The same problem had been cited in a prior inspection. The food permit display violation was also a repeat, though the permit was posted during the inspection once the issue was raised.
The fifth violation involved packaged ice. The inspector noted that no microbial analysis of the finished product from an approved laboratory was available at the time of the visit. The travel stop carries packaged ice as part of its licensed operation, and testing documentation is required to verify the product meets safety standards.
What These Violations Mean
The sausage temperature finding is the kind of violation that carries direct risk for anyone who grabbed food from the hot case that morning. Hot-held food that has not completed the heating process can harbor bacteria that survive at lower temperatures, including pathogens that cause foodborne illness. The 135-degree threshold is not arbitrary; it is the point at which most dangerous bacterial growth is suppressed. Sausage sitting at 100 to 104 degrees is in the range where bacteria can multiply.
The handwashing violation in the Bojango's area matters because gloves create a false sense of protection when hands underneath them are not clean. An employee who handles raw or ready-to-eat food without first washing hands can transfer contamination directly through the glove surface. The priority classification on this violation reflects that it is a direct route for contamination, not a recordkeeping or administrative lapse.
The missing ice microbial test is a different category of concern. Packaged ice sold at a convenience store is a food product, and state rules require that it be tested by an approved laboratory to confirm it is free of microbial contamination. Without that documentation, there is no independent verification that the ice being sold to customers meets safety standards. That violation was not corrected on site.
The Longer Record
Love's Travel Stop #828: Inspection History
The January 2026 inspection was not the first time state inspectors found problems at this location. A July 2024 visit turned up four violations, including one repeat, and the facility met requirements at that inspection as well. The hair restraint and permit display problems flagged in January 2026 had appeared before, which means the location was on notice that those issues were unresolved.
The pattern across five inspections on record shows a facility that consistently meets the threshold to remain open but accumulates repeat citations in the same areas. The two focused inspections in 2023 and the one in March 2026 all came back clean, which suggests the location can operate without violations. The January 2026 visit, however, found the most serious violations in the location's documented history, including the first priority food temperature finding on record.
The March 2026 follow-up inspection recorded zero violations, indicating the location corrected its standing issues after the January visit. The microbial testing gap for packaged ice, unresolved when the inspector left in January, was not noted as a remaining concern in March.