HIALEAH GARDENS, FL. Back in December 2025, state inspectors walked into Seviano Gas, a convenience store on the edge of Miami-Dade County, and found hemp extract products on the retail shelf in containers designed to attract children, without child-resistant packaging, without required safety labeling, and without the scannable QR codes that would let anyone verify what was actually in them.
That was one category of problems. There were 26 others.
What Inspectors Found
The hemp violations alone generated 31 stop sale orders. Inspectors documented products in the retail area that lacked child-resistant packaging meeting ASTM standards, that contained color additives attractive to children, and that were sold in containers the inspector described as attractive to children. Several products were also missing the statement "Not Intended For Ingestion, Do Not Eat" required on inhalable hemp products. Others had QR codes that did not link to a certificate of analysis within three steps, as Florida law requires.
The person in charge voluntarily discarded those products at the time of inspection.
The store was also operating without a valid food permit. The inspector noted the establishment "was found to be operating prior to the initial inspection without a valid food permit," which means this December 5 visit was the first time state regulators had formally evaluated the food operation there.
The Food Service Problems
Beyond the hemp shelf, inspectors found a functioning food service operation with its own set of failures. Eight glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice, prepared and packaged on site by a Zumex machine, were sitting in the retail area for self-service sale without the required warning label for juice that has not undergone a 5-log pathogen reduction process. The inspector had them pulled from self-service and moved to a deli counter to be served directly.
The Zumex machine itself had a crack in its front cover.
The hand sink at the service counter was blocked by a trash can, a violation classified as intermediate, meaning it directly impairs the ability of employees to wash their hands between tasks. The trash can was removed during the inspection. A spray bottle of chemical cleaner in the backroom entrance was not labeled as to its contents.
The ware wash sink in the backroom was directly connected to the sewage system, a plumbing configuration that creates a pathway for contamination to move in the wrong direction. The mop sink was missing a backflow prevention device on its threaded faucet. Neither of those was corrected on site.
The service window at the espresso station was left open throughout the inspection without protection against insects or rodents. The cutting board at the sandwich prep station was scored and pitted, a surface condition that traps bacteria in grooves that cannot be sanitized. An idle, broken sandwich prep cooler sat in front of the stove top in the processing area.
Unfinished wood shelving, which cannot be properly sanitized, was being used to store packaged foods and beverages in the walk-in cooler. Ceiling lights in the kitchen were not shielded and did not appear to be shatter-resistant. A container of sugar was stored on the floor at the entrance of the kitchen, with the handle of a scoop touching the product directly.
The person in charge could not answer questions about foodborne illness prevention and could not produce written employee procedures for cleanup of a vomit or diarrhea event.
What These Violations Mean
The hemp product violations carry specific consumer protection weight. Florida law requires child-resistant packaging on hemp extract products because cannabinoids can be acutely toxic to young children. Products designed with bright colors and child-attractive containers, without compliant seals, are a direct accidental ingestion risk. The QR code requirement exists so that a buyer, or a poison control center, can trace exactly what batch of product they are dealing with. Products without that link to a certificate of analysis are effectively unverifiable.
The fresh orange juice warning label requirement addresses a different risk. Unpasteurized juice can carry E. coli, Salmonella, and Cryptosporidium. The 5-log reduction warning is required precisely because the store was not treating the juice to eliminate those pathogens. Eight glasses were sitting in self-service reach of customers who had no way of knowing that.
The direct sewage connection at the ware wash sink is a structural plumbing problem, not a cleanliness issue. A direct connection means wastewater from the sewage system can, under certain pressure conditions, back up into the sink used to wash equipment. That is a contamination pathway that exists regardless of how carefully staff clean.
The missing backflow preventer at the mop sink creates a similar risk. Both remained unresolved when the inspector left.
The Longer Record
This was the first FDACS inspection on record for Seviano Gas. The December 5 visit was triggered by the store operating without a valid food permit, meaning the 27 violations documented that day were found before the establishment had ever been formally cleared to sell food under state oversight.
A follow-up focused inspection on December 12 recorded zero violations, suggesting the most immediately correctable problems were addressed in the week after the initial visit.
What the follow-up did not resolve, at least not on the record available, is the structural plumbing. The ware wash sink's direct sewage connection and the missing backflow preventer at the mop sink were both still unresolved at the close of the December 5 inspection.
