LARGO, FL. Back in March 2026, state food inspectors visiting Nu Vape and Glass on Largo documented something that stopped the inspection cold: the owner told them to leave.
According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection record dated March 4, 2026, the establishment's owner "stated to FDACS Food inspectors F. Hicks and A. Boeke to leave Food establishment." The inspectors noted that "due to owner statement, the Inspectors could not finish the full food safety inspection." That interruption is itself a cited violation under Florida Statute 500.147(1), which requires food establishments to allow authorized state agents free access for regulatory compliance checks.
What the inspectors had already documented before being turned away was significant.
What Inspectors Found
In the back room, inspectors found jars of hemp flower with "only name of flower on top of lid," a repeat violation for hemp or hemp extract intended for human consumption that is distributed or sold without proper labeling. That same back room had no handwash sink near the three-compartment sink, another repeat citation. The only available handwashing station was in the restroom.
The plumbing situation was also a repeat problem. Inspectors noted "no hot water heater installed," a priority-level violation that had been cited before. There was also no mop sink, despite inspectors observing that the establishment had "open kegs, bagging loose flower and bagging open kratom," activities that generate the kind of cleanup need a mop sink exists to address.
The kratom labeling violations were new citations under Florida emergency rule 5KER25-6. Inspectors found various kratom products throughout the retail area that did not include the concentration of 7-Hydroxymitragynine, known as 7-OH, expressed in parts per million on a dry-weight basis. That requirement applies to both pre-packaged kratom and in-house packaging. At Nu Vape and Glass, inspectors found kratom "packaged in house in zip lock bags with only name and weight on bag."
None of the six violations were corrected on site.
What These Violations Mean
Kratom is a botanical product derived from a Southeast Asian plant, sold as a supplement and consumed for its stimulant and sedative effects depending on dose. Florida's emergency rule requiring 7-OH concentration labeling exists because 7-Hydroxymitragynine is the compound most associated with kratom's opioid-like effects and its potential for harm at high concentrations. When a product is sold without that label, a customer has no way to know how potent what they are buying actually is. That is not a paperwork problem. It is a dosing problem.
The hemp flower labeling issue carries a similar concern. Jars identified only by the name of the strain give customers no information about cannabinoid content, origin, or compliance with legal THC thresholds. For a product intended for human consumption, that is the minimum a label is supposed to convey.
The absence of a hot water heater is a priority violation because hot water is the baseline requirement for effective handwashing and sanitation in any food or consumable-product environment. At Nu Vape and Glass, inspectors found no hot water and no handwash sink in the area where employees were actively bagging products. The combination of those two conditions means employees handling open kratom and loose hemp flower had no practical means of washing their hands before packaging products that customers would later consume.
The owner's instruction to inspectors to leave before the inspection was complete meant the full scope of conditions inside the establishment was never documented.
The Longer Record
The March 4 inspection was not the first time state inspectors had flagged problems at this location. The prior inspection history at Nu Vape and Glass shows a facility that went from a clean record to an accumulating one in under two years.
In April 2024, a focused inspection found zero violations. That clean result makes the March 2026 findings harder to explain away as first-time oversights. The plumbing violations, the hemp labeling deficiency, and the missing handwash sink were all marked repeat citations in March 2026, which means they had been cited in at least one previous inspection and had not been resolved.
A follow-up product re-inspection on March 16, 2026, twelve days after the initial visit, found six violations with one repeat. The fact that the violation count did not drop substantially between the March 4 inspection and the March 16 re-inspection suggests the corrective action taken in that window was limited.
Three of the six violations from March 4 were repeat citations. As of the March 16 re-inspection, at least one repeat violation remained. No violations from either inspection were corrected on site during the original visit.