CORAL SPRINGS, FL. Back in June 2025, a state inspector visited a soda kiosk inside a Coral Springs shopping center and found that the person running it that day could not correctly answer basic questions about foodborne diseases and their symptoms.
That finding, recorded on June 4, 2025, was one of four violations cited at Pop And Fizz Refreshing Sodas, a retail kiosk that sells specialty drinks to shoppers. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services conducted the inspection. The kiosk met sanitation inspection requirements overall, but the citations pointed to gaps in the basic food safety knowledge the state expects from anyone serving food to the public.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's notes on the person in charge were direct: "Person in charge did not respond correctly to questions about foodborne diseases and their symptoms." That is not a paperwork gap. It means the employee responsible for overseeing food safety operations at the kiosk that day lacked the working knowledge to identify the illnesses the state considers most likely to spread through food.
The second priority-foundation violation involved written cleanup procedures. The inspector noted that the kiosk "does not have written procedures for employees to follow when responding to an event involving the discharge of vomitus or diarrhea events." The inspector provided guidance on Norovirus cleanup and disinfection during the visit.
The kiosk also had no certified food protection manager on record and no handwashing sign posted for employees. The owner produced a handwashing sign during the inspection, resolving that violation on the spot. The other three remained unresolved at the time the inspector left.
What These Violations Mean
The two priority-foundation violations, while not the most severe classification in the state's system, point to a specific kind of risk: a food operation where the person in charge does not know what to do when something goes wrong.
Foodborne illness questions are not trivia. Inspectors ask them to verify that whoever is running the operation can recognize symptoms, know when to exclude a sick employee from food handling, and understand which diseases, including Norovirus, Salmonella, and Hepatitis A, require immediate action. At Pop And Fizz, the person in charge could not demonstrate that knowledge.
The missing vomit and diarrhea cleanup protocol matters for a related reason. Norovirus spreads rapidly in food service settings, and the cleanup of a contamination event requires specific steps, including isolating the area, using the right disinfectant concentration, and disposing of materials correctly. Without a written plan, employees improvise. At a kiosk inside a shopping center, where customers cycle through constantly, an improperly handled contamination event could expose a large number of people.
The absence of a certified food protection manager is a separate structural gap. State rules require that at least one employee at a food establishment hold a valid food safety certification. That person is supposed to be the anchor for everything else, training staff, enforcing procedures, and serving as the knowledgeable presence the inspector can verify. Pop And Fizz did not have one on record as of June 2025.
The Longer Record
The June 2025 inspection was not the kiosk's first encounter with state inspectors. Records show 10 inspections on file for this location, with 16 total violations accumulated across that history and no emergency closures.
The most recent prior inspection in the available data, from February 2026, produced a single violation for operating without a valid food permit. That citation was marked as a repeat violation, meaning inspectors had flagged the same issue before. A permit lapse is not a minor administrative oversight. It means the establishment was operating outside the legal framework that allows the state to hold it accountable.
The May 2023 inspection resulted in five violations, the highest single-inspection count in the available history. The October 2022 visit found no violations at all. The pattern across those records is uneven, a clean inspection followed by a cluster of citations, followed by a permit problem flagged twice.
The June 2025 inspection sits in the middle of that arc. Four violations, none of them the highest priority classification, but two of them pointing to the same underlying problem: the people operating the kiosk were not prepared to answer for what happens when something goes wrong.
What Remains Unresolved
Of the four violations cited on June 4, 2025, only one was corrected during the inspection. The owner posted a handwashing sign when the inspector pointed out it was missing.
The remaining three, no certified food protection manager, no written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures, and a person in charge who could not correctly answer questions about foodborne illness, were not resolved on site. The inspector provided written guidance on Norovirus cleanup procedures, but providing a document is not the same as having a plan in place.
As of that June inspection, Pop And Fizz Refreshing Sodas had no certified food safety manager on record.
