PEMBROKE PINES, FL. Back in January 2026, the person in charge at a Pembroke Pines convenience store could not answer basic questions about preventing foodborne illness, according to a state inspector who visited the location before it opened for business.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspected Raw Energy, a convenience store at the limited food service level, on January 26, 2026. The inspection was a preoperational review, meaning the store had to meet baseline requirements before it could operate. Inspectors documented three violations. None were priority violations, and none were marked as repeat.
The store ultimately met preoperational inspection requirements and was cleared to open. But the record of what inspectors found that day raises questions about how well prepared the staff was to handle a food safety emergency.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's notes are direct. The person in charge "could not answer questions that relate to foodborne illness," the record states. That is not a paperwork gap or a minor administrative shortfall. It is a finding that the individual responsible for food safety operations at the store, on the day inspectors arrived, lacked foundational knowledge about preventing customers from getting sick.
The second intermediate violation compounds that picture. The same person in charge "could not show written employee procedures for cleanup of a vomit and diarrhea event," according to the inspector's notes. State rules require food establishments to have those procedures written down and accessible. Raw Energy had none.
The third violation is categorized as basic: the establishment does not have a certified food protection manager who has passed a recognized food safety exam.
None of the three violations were corrected on site during the January inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The two intermediate violations at Raw Energy both point to the same underlying gap: a lack of trained leadership at the point of sale. When the person in charge cannot answer questions about foodborne illness, that person cannot make sound decisions in the moments that matter, such as when an employee shows up sick, when a food product is stored at the wrong temperature, or when a customer reports getting ill after a purchase.
The written cleanup procedures requirement exists for a specific reason. Vomit and diarrhea can carry norovirus, one of the most contagious foodborne pathogens. Without a documented protocol, employees may not know to use the right disinfectants, wear gloves, or isolate contaminated areas. In a convenience store where food and beverages are sold alongside high-touch surfaces, that gap is not theoretical.
The absence of a certified food protection manager ties directly to both of those findings. Certification requires passing a recognized exam that covers temperature control, cross-contamination, personal hygiene, and illness response. A store without a certified manager is a store where no one has been formally tested on whether they understand the rules well enough to enforce them.
Together, these three violations describe a store that was cleared to open with its food safety knowledge and emergency procedures still unresolved.
The Longer Record
The January 26 inspection was a preoperational review, which means it represents Raw Energy's entry point into the state inspection record. There are no prior inspections on file for this location, no history of repeat violations, and no pattern of citations stretching back over multiple years.
That context matters in both directions. A new facility has no track record of neglect to point to. But it also means the violations documented on opening day, including a person in charge who could not demonstrate basic foodborne illness knowledge, were the first impression this store made on state inspectors.
Preoperational inspections are designed to catch exactly these kinds of gaps before a store begins serving customers. The fact that Raw Energy was cleared despite three unresolved violations, including two intermediate-level findings related to staff knowledge and emergency procedures, reflects how the state's tiered violation system works. Not every violation is a hard stop. But the record is the record, and it shows that on the day this store was approved to open, no one corrected those three findings before the inspector left.
The Unresolved Questions
As of the January 26 inspection, Raw Energy had no certified food protection manager on staff. That is not a violation that resolves itself. Someone at the store needs to register for, study for, and pass a recognized food safety certification exam.
The written vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures can be drafted and posted in a matter of hours. Whether that happened after the inspector's visit is not reflected in the available records.
What the record does show is that when a state inspector walked into Raw Energy before it opened and asked the person in charge about foodborne illness prevention, that person could not answer the questions.