Key West wine shop had no valid food permit and still lacked a required emergency cleanup plan

KEY WEST, FL. Back in March 2026, a state inspector visited Old Town Wine & Spirits on a routine food safety check and found the convenience store operating without a valid 2026 food permit, according to Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services records.

The inspection, conducted March 30, turned up two violations at the prepackaged goods retailer. One of them was a repeat.

What Inspectors Found

The most immediate finding was the missing permit. The inspector's notes state plainly: "The food establishment is operating without a valid 2026 food permit." The store had submitted an application before the inspection, but payment of the required fee had not yet been made. The inspector directed the business to remit that payment within ten days and provided a contact number at the state's Business Center for follow-up.

The second violation was one the store had seen before. Inspectors found that the establishment still lacked written procedures for employees to follow when responding to vomiting or diarrhea incidents, a requirement under state food safety rules. The inspector's notes describe it this way: "The establishment lacks written procedures for employees to follow when responding to vomiting or diarrheal events." A copy of the state's guidance document was provided on the spot.

Neither violation was corrected during the inspection itself.

The Longer Record

The March 2026 visit was only the second FDACS inspection on record for Old Town Wine & Spirits. The prior inspection, conducted August 25, 2023, resulted in zero violations and a clean "Met Inspection Requirements" rating.

That makes the repeat designation on the vomiting and diarrhea procedures violation harder to explain through a long history of documented problems. The store passed cleanly in 2023, yet arrived at the 2026 inspection still without a written emergency response plan in place, a gap inspectors had flagged at some prior point in the facility's record.

Two inspections over roughly two and a half years is a thin paper trail. What it does show is that a facility capable of a clean inspection in 2023 had not, by March 2026, resolved a procedural requirement that costs nothing to implement.

What These Violations Mean

Operating without a valid food permit is not a paperwork technicality. The permit system is the state's primary mechanism for ensuring that food retailers are subject to regular oversight. A store selling food without a current permit has, at minimum, allowed its compliance status to lapse, meaning inspectors have no confirmed basis for treating the facility as currently approved to sell food to the public.

For a prepackaged goods retailer like Old Town Wine & Spirits, the risk profile is lower than for a full-service kitchen. The store does not prepare food. But the permit requirement still applies, and the lapse is documented.

The written procedures requirement for vomiting and diarrhea incidents is a different kind of gap. It sounds bureaucratic. It is not. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads through contaminated surfaces and can survive on retail surfaces for days. When a vomiting or diarrheal incident occurs in a food retail environment, the cleanup protocol matters. Without written procedures, employees have no standardized guidance on which disinfectants to use, how long to let them dwell on surfaces, or how to handle contaminated materials safely.

The fact that this violation is marked repeat means inspectors had reason to flag it before. The state provided guidance again at the March 2026 visit. Whether the store has since formalized that guidance into a written plan is not reflected in the inspection record.

Where Things Stood After the Inspection

As of the March 30 inspection, neither violation had been corrected on site. The permit application was already in the system, but payment remained outstanding, with a ten-day deadline to complete it. The written procedures gap was addressed only by the inspector handing over a copy of state guidance.

The inspection was classified as "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit, Met Sanitation Inspection," meaning the store met general sanitation standards but had not resolved its permit status at the time of the visit.

The store's permit payment deadline, counting from March 30, fell in early April 2026.