PLANT CITY, FL. Back in January 2026, a state inspector visiting Sanctuary, a mobile food vendor operating in Plant City, documented that the unit had no written procedures for employees to follow if a customer or worker experienced a vomiting or diarrhea incident on site.
That finding, along with two others, was recorded during a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection on January 30, 2026. Sanctuary met sanitation requirements overall, but the three violations it carried out of that inspection were left uncorrected at the time.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's notes on the first violation were direct: "Food mobile does not have written procedures for employees responding to an event that involves vomiting or diarrhea." The inspector provided informational materials to the vendor at the time of the visit.
The second citation was equally specific. The inspector noted: "Food mobile: No probe thermometer available." Critically, the inspector also noted that no actual temperature violation was observed during the inspection, meaning no food was found at an unsafe temperature that day.
The third violation was the absence of a certified food protection manager on staff, a credential that requires passing a recognized food safety examination.
None of the three violations were corrected on site during the January 30 inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The missing written vomit and diarrhea response plan is not a paperwork technicality. When someone vomits or has a diarrheal incident near a food service area, the contamination risk is immediate and specific. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness, spreads rapidly through contact with contaminated surfaces. A written response protocol tells employees exactly how to contain the area, what protective equipment to use, and how to sanitize surfaces before food handling resumes. Without one, employees are left to improvise in a situation where improvisation can spread illness to customers.
The absence of a probe thermometer on a mobile food unit creates a blind spot. Mobile vendors operate without the fixed infrastructure of a brick-and-mortar store, which makes temperature monitoring more critical, not less. Foods that require temperature control for safety, including certain prepared items, deli products, or anything held hot or cold, can drift into the danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit without a thermometer to catch it. The inspector found no temperature violations on January 30, but the unit had no tool to verify that on its own.
The lack of a certified food protection manager compounds both concerns. Certification programs train food handlers to recognize exactly these categories of risk, from proper thermometer use to contamination response. A facility operating without anyone who has passed that training is more likely to have gaps in its safety practices, and less likely to catch them internally before an inspector does.
The Longer Record
The inspection data available for Sanctuary does not include a prior inspection count, which means this January 2026 visit may represent one of the earliest documented inspections for this mobile vendor under FDACS oversight. Without a longer record to compare, it is not possible to say whether these three violations reflect a pattern of repeat deficiencies or a first-time snapshot of a unit still building out its food safety infrastructure.
What the record does show is that none of the three violations were marked as repeat citations on January 30. That is a meaningful distinction. A repeat violation signals that an inspector found the same problem on a previous visit and the operator did not fix it. The absence of repeat flags here suggests these findings were being documented for the first time, at least under this inspection record.
The vendor did meet overall sanitation requirements, meaning the inspection did not result in a stop-sale order, an emergency closure, or a failed inspection designation. The three violations cited were classified as priority foundation and basic level, not the highest-severity priority violations that typically trigger immediate enforcement action.
Where Things Stood After the Inspection
As of the January 30 inspection, all three violations remained unresolved. The inspector provided informational materials regarding the vomit and diarrhea response procedures, but the records show no on-site correction was made for any of the citations before the inspector left.
The two priority foundation violations, the missing written illness response plan and the absent probe thermometer, are the kind of deficiencies that can be addressed without significant cost or structural change. A laminated response protocol and a calibrated probe thermometer together represent a modest investment. Whether Sanctuary addressed them after the inspector's visit is not reflected in the data available for this inspection.
The certification gap is a longer-term fix. Obtaining a recognized food protection manager credential requires completing a course and passing an exam, a process that takes time but is a standard expectation for food operations across Florida.
Sanctuary left the January 30 inspection without a thermometer to measure food temperatures and without a written plan for one of the most contagious contamination scenarios a mobile food vendor can face.