DORAL, FL. Back in February 2026, a new convenience store in Doral cleared its preoperational inspection with three unresolved violations on the books, including no probe thermometer available to check whether refrigerated products were being held at safe temperatures.
State inspectors from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services visited Osubar, a prepackaged convenience store on the edge of Miami-Dade County, on February 13, 2026. The facility met the threshold to open, but the inspection record shows it did so without some basic food safety infrastructure in place.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's own notes describe the thermometer gap plainly: "No probe thermometer available in the food establishment to assess cold holding temperatures throughout the establishment." For a store selling prepackaged refrigerated products, that means there was no tool on hand to verify that coolers and cases were keeping food out of the temperature range where bacteria multiply.
The second violation involved emergency preparedness. The inspector wrote that the store had no "written procedures for employees to follow when responding to an event involving the discharge of vomitus or diarrhea." The inspector provided guidance by email during the visit, but no written plan existed at the time of inspection.
The third violation was the absence of a certified food protection manager, someone who has passed a state-recognized food safety exam and can be held accountable for compliance decisions.
None of the three violations were corrected on site during the February 13 visit.
What These Violations Mean
The missing thermometer is the most immediately practical gap. Cold holding violations are one of the most common contributors to foodborne illness outbreaks, because bacteria including Salmonella and Listeria grow rapidly in the range between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Without a probe thermometer, employees at Osubar had no way to verify that a cooler running slightly warm, or a refrigerated case with a faulty seal, was actually keeping products safe. The problem is not hypothetical, it is a gap in the store's ability to catch a temperature failure before product reaches a customer.
The lack of written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures sounds procedural, but it addresses a specific transmission risk. Norovirus, one of the most contagious foodborne pathogens, spreads easily through contaminated surfaces when cleanup is handled incorrectly. A written procedure ensures that employees know to use the right disinfectants, in the right concentrations, and to contain the area before cleaning. Without one, the response depends entirely on individual judgment in a high-stress moment.
The absent certified food protection manager matters for a different reason. State rules require at least one person at a food establishment to hold a current certification from an accredited food safety program. That person is responsible for training staff, maintaining records, and recognizing when something in the operation has gone wrong. When no one holds that credential, there is no designated point of accountability.
All three violations at Osubar fell into the intermediate or standard category, meaning none triggered an emergency closure or a stop sale order. No products were pulled from shelves. But intermediate violations are not minor, they reflect gaps in the management systems that prevent problems from occurring in the first place.
The Longer Record
The February 13, 2026 inspection was a preoperational visit, meaning it was conducted before or at the time the store opened for business. That context matters. A preoperational inspection is designed to catch exactly these kinds of gaps before a store begins serving customers.
The state's records show this was the first inspection on file for Osubar. There is no prior history to compare against, no pattern of repeat violations, and no record of whether the three open violations were subsequently addressed. A facility with no inspection history is neither a chronic offender nor a proven clean operation, it is simply an unknown quantity at the moment the record was created.
What the record does show is that Osubar opened with none of the three violations corrected on site. Whether the store acquired a probe thermometer, trained an employee on cleanup procedures, or enrolled a manager in a certification course after February 13 is not reflected in the available data.
Where Things Stood After the Inspection
The facility met preoperational requirements and was cleared to open. That is the official finding. But the inspection record closes with three violations still listed as unresolved, including the two marked as intermediate priority, which carry more weight than standard administrative citations.
The probe thermometer was not in the store when inspectors visited. That fact stands in the record regardless of what came after.