ISLAMORADA, FL. Back in May 2025, state inspectors paying a visit to Raw Charli'S, a mobile vendor operating in Islamorada, found that the vendor still had no written procedures in place for employees to follow when a customer or worker experiences a vomiting or diarrhea event on site. It was not the first time inspectors had noted that gap.
The inspection, conducted on May 21, 2025, by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, turned up two violations. Neither was classified as a high-priority violation, but one was marked repeat, meaning inspectors had documented the same deficiency at a prior visit.
What Inspectors Found
UNRESOLVED AT INSPECTION END
RESOLVED DURING INSPECTION
The first violation, the repeat citation, described a vendor operating without any documented plan for handling a vomiting or diarrhea incident. The inspector's own notation read: "The establishment does not have written procedures for employees to follow when responding to a vomiting or diarrhea event." The inspector provided a copy of guidance for written procedures before leaving.
The second violation involved sanitizer test strips. The inspector noted that "no sanitizer test strips are available at the food establishment to accurately measure the concentration of the sanitizing solution being used." The operator received test strips from the inspector at the end of the visit.
Neither violation was corrected by the vendor independently before the inspector's arrival, and neither was resolved through the vendor's own action during the inspection. Both fixes came from supplies the inspector brought and handed over on site.
What These Violations Mean
The absence of written vomiting and diarrhea response procedures is not a paperwork technicality. When a customer or employee becomes ill on site, the way contaminated surfaces are cleaned, what products are used, and in what sequence, determines whether a norovirus or similar pathogen spreads to others through contact with surfaces or food. Without a written plan, employees have no standardized reference for what to do in those first critical minutes.
The repeat classification makes this more significant. It means inspectors flagged the same missing plan at Raw Charli'S before May 2025, and the vendor had not put written procedures in place in the intervening period.
The sanitizer test strip violation points to a separate but related gap in daily food safety practice. Sanitizing solutions, whether bleach-based or quaternary ammonium, lose effectiveness when mixed at the wrong concentration. Too weak, and surfaces are not adequately disinfected. Too strong, and the solution itself becomes a chemical hazard on food-contact surfaces. Test strips are the routine, inexpensive tool that confirms a solution is within the safe and effective range. Operating without them means the vendor had no way to verify that surfaces were being sanitized correctly.
For anyone purchasing food from a mobile vendor, both of these violations speak to baseline operational controls, the kind that are supposed to be in place every day, not just during inspections.
The Longer Record
The May 2025 inspection does not exist in isolation. State records show 39 total inspections on file for this location, with 481 total violations documented across that history. That is an average of more than 12 violations per inspection over the life of the record.
One emergency closure is also on record. Emergency closures in Florida require an inspector to determine that conditions at a facility pose an immediate threat to public health, a threshold that goes beyond routine citation.
The most recent prior FDACS inspection on record before May 2025 was a focused inspection on July 11, 2022, which found zero violations. That single clean visit sits against a cumulative total of 481 violations across all inspections, a contrast that reflects how much the overall record varies from visit to visit.
The repeat classification on the vomiting and diarrhea procedures violation in May 2025 indicates that at least one earlier inspection had cited the same deficiency and the vendor had not addressed it by the time inspectors returned.
The May 2025 Outcome
The May 21, 2025 inspection closed with a finding that Raw Charli'S met sanitation inspection requirements, meaning the visit did not result in a stop sale order or closure. The two violations noted were classified below the highest priority level.
Zero violations were corrected on site by the vendor. Both the written procedures guidance and the sanitizer test strips were supplied by the inspector, not sourced by the operator.
The repeat violation for missing vomiting and diarrhea response procedures remained an open question as of that inspection date: whether the vendor would maintain written procedures going forward, or whether the next inspection would find the same gap a third time.
