HIALEAH, FL. Back in December 2025, state inspectors visited a Hialeah pharmacy that sells perishable food and found it operating without a valid food permit, unable to document where its water comes from or where its sewage goes.
The facility, Navarro Discount Pharmacy #11601, is classified by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as a Minor Outlet with Perishables, meaning it sells food items that require refrigeration or other handling controls. The December 8 inspection turned up three violations, including one priority violation tied directly to sewage disposal and a priority foundation violation tied to water supply.
Neither was corrected on site.
What Inspectors Found
Navarro #11601 Inspection History, Nov. 2025 to Apr. 2026
The inspector's notes from December were direct. "This food establishment is operating without a valid food permit and has not met all permitting requirements by providing approved documentation for water supply and sewage disposal," the report states.
On the sewage question, the inspector wrote that the establishment "did not provide proof of acceptable sewage disposal." On water, the report cited Rule 5K-4.004(3)(a) of the Florida Administrative Code, noting the pharmacy "did not provide documentation demonstrating the water supply for its facility comes from an approved source."
These are not paperwork technicalities. They are foundational requirements that any food-selling establishment must meet before it can legally operate.
What These Violations Mean
Florida requires food establishments to document that their water comes from an approved public water main and that sewage is disposed through an approved public treatment system. The state does not take these requirements on faith. An establishment must produce documentation, because without it, there is no way to verify that the water used in food handling, cleaning, or food preparation meets safety standards.
An unverified water supply is a direct food safety risk. Water that has not been confirmed to come from an approved source could carry pathogens, including bacteria and viruses, that contaminate food, food-contact surfaces, and the hands of employees handling products. For a pharmacy that sells perishable items, the concern is not theoretical.
The sewage violation carries a parallel risk. Improper sewage disposal creates conditions for contamination to enter a food environment, and without documentation of an approved disposal system, inspectors have no way to confirm that basic sanitation infrastructure is functioning as required.
Operating without a valid food permit compounds both issues. A permit is the state's mechanism for ensuring that a facility has been reviewed and approved to handle food safely. Selling perishables without one means the establishment has been operating outside that oversight framework.
The Longer Record
The December 8 inspection was not the beginning of this story. State records show that inspectors first documented the permit and documentation violations at this location on November 14, 2025, when the same three violations were cited. That visit was also classified as an "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit" inspection.
Every subsequent re-inspection through February 2026 returned the same result: three violations, no resolution. That is six consecutive inspections spanning nearly three months, all documenting the same core problem. The pharmacy continued selling perishable food throughout.
The violation count dropped to one by the March 20, 2026 re-inspection, and remained at one, marked as a repeat, through the April 3 focused inspection. That repeat designation means inspectors found the same unresolved issue they had documented before, even as the overall count fell. As of the most recent inspection in the record, the permit problem had not been fully resolved.
Nine inspections over roughly five months. The same foundational violations at the center of each one.
Unresolved as of December
None of the three violations cited on December 8 were corrected during the inspection visit. The inspector's notes directed the establishment to "see comments" on both the sewage and water violations, indicating additional documentation or follow-up was required.
The pharmacy had been selling perishable food products without a valid food permit for at least three weeks before that December visit, based on the November 14 inspection date. It would continue to operate under the same unresolved status through at least six more re-inspections.
As of the December 8 inspection, Navarro Discount Pharmacy #11601 had not provided the state with documentation that its water comes from an approved source.
