LIVE OAK, FL. Back in January 2026, state inspectors walked into Pan's Food Mart, a convenience store on the limited food service end of Live Oak's retail landscape, and found that the person in charge had no knowledge of the store's employee health policy and couldn't correctly answer basic questions about preventing the spread of illness. That wasn't the only gap. The store also could not produce a written procedure for responding to a vomiting or diarrheal event anywhere on the premises.
The January 29 inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services turned up 17 total violations. None were classified as priority violations, but four were marked as priority foundation, meaning they involve the management systems and training that underpin safe food handling. One violation was a repeat from a prior inspection.
What Inspectors Found
The labeling problem in the retail area was resolved before the inspector left. Frozen tilapia packaged on site was not labeled with the name and address of the manufacturer, a requirement for consumer traceability. The inspector noted that it "was properly labeled on pricing label before completion of the inspection." That was the only violation corrected during the visit.
The ware wash area drew three separate citations. The sink was not sealed to the attached wall extension. Plywood was being stored across the basins. And the area lacked drainboards or racks for proper air drying of utensils and equipment.
The back room told its own story. The rear exit door near the restroom had a visible gap between the door and frame, with daylight showing through, leaving the store open to insects and rodents. The restroom door was observed propped open between uses. A side room next to the retail freezers was described as containing "clutter, old scales and equipment, boxes and assorted retail items stacked on top of each other." The walk-in cooler had insufficient lighting.
Out front, the hand wash sink at the food service counter had mineralization buildup. The dumpster outside had its lid kept open between uses. Boxes of prepackaged chips were stored directly on the floor in the retail area, and cardboard was being used as shelf liner for chips and other products.
What These Violations Mean
The four priority foundation violations are the most consequential findings in this inspection because they reflect what the store's management does, or doesn't, have in place before anything goes wrong. A written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedure isn't bureaucratic paperwork. It exists because norovirus and other pathogens spread rapidly through aerosolized particles and surface contact during a cleanup done without proper protective equipment, specific disinfectants, and disposal steps. Without a written procedure, employees have no consistent guidance on how to contain an incident.
The employee health policy gap compounds that risk. When a person in charge cannot demonstrate knowledge of which illnesses require employees to stay home or be restricted from food handling, sick workers can move through a store handling products that go directly into customers' hands. At Pan's Food Mart, the inspector found that the person in charge "has no knowledge of employee health policy therefore incorrectly responds to questions relating to it." That's not a paperwork problem. It's a training failure at the management level.
No sanitizer test strips means the store had no way to verify that any sanitizing solution being used was at the correct concentration. Too weak, and surfaces aren't actually being disinfected. The store couldn't confirm either way.
The gap in the rear exit door, wide enough for visible daylight, is a direct entry point for rodents and insects. Combined with the open dumpster lid outside and the cluttered back room storage area, those conditions create the kind of environment that attracts and sustains pest activity.
The Longer Record
Pan's Food Mart: Inspection History
Pan's Food Mart has four inspections on record with FDACS. The pattern is consistent across the two full inspections in the record: 16 violations in April 2024, 17 in January 2026. Both times the store was found to meet requirements, meaning it avoided an emergency closure, but both times inspectors documented a substantial list of problems.
The repeat violation from January 2026, the missing written procedure for vomiting and diarrheal events, was present in a prior inspection as well. That means inspectors flagged this specific gap before and returned more than a year later to find it still unresolved.
The day after the January 29 inspection, a focused follow-up visit on January 30 found zero violations. But the January 29 inspection record shows that none of the 17 violations, with the exception of the tilapia labeling, were corrected during the original visit itself.
The repeat vomit cleanup violation remained unresolved at the close of the January 29 inspection.