JENSEN BEACH, FL. Back in January 2026, state inspectors walked into a Jensen Beach convenience store and found the ice maker coated in what the inspector described as a "mold like substance throughout chutes and interior areas of walls." They shut it down on the spot.
That stop-use order on the ice maker was one of three priority violations documented during the January 6 inspection of SHS Jensen 1387 LLC, a convenience store with limited food service on Jensen Beach's commercial strip. The inspection, conducted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, turned up 17 total violations. None were corrected before inspectors arrived. The store was also operating without a valid food permit.
What Inspectors Found
The second priority violation involved the store's food supply directly. Inspectors found multiple containers of diced carrots, spinach, and pineapple stored inside a white coffin freezer with ice buildup making direct contact with the food. The inspector classified the produce as adulterated, issued a stop-sale order, and the items were voluntarily discarded during the inspection.
The third priority violation was a chemical storage problem. Inspectors found various buckets of sanitizer solution stored on top of the prep table and prep sink, where they could contaminate food and food-contact surfaces. The buckets were moved to proper storage during the inspection.
Beyond the three priority violations, the picture inside the store was worse. Multiple employees were observed not washing their hands after handling money, taking out garbage, and wiping down counters with sanitizer solution before returning to work with exposed food. The hand sink next to the white coffin freezer had no paper towels or hand-drying device available. Inspectors also found no soap at the same sink.
The violations kept accumulating. Multiple containers of diced food ingredients, including carrots, spinach, and pineapple, were stored uncovered in the same white coffin freezer. Plastic scoop handles were making contact with food powders inside storage containers. Unlabeled plastic bottles of condiments sat on the counter. Clean food containers were not stored inverted near the drive-through area.
Soil and food debris had built up along the bottom shelves of both the stand-up freezer and the white coffin freezer. Water spillage and soil had accumulated along the floor and under the stand-up freezer in the back storage area. Employee aprons were hanging on the clean food equipment storage rack, though they were moved to proper storage during the inspection.
The store also had no certified food protection manager certificate on site, and no ambient thermometer in the prep cooler storing yogurts.
What These Violations Mean
The mold contamination inside the ice maker is the kind of violation that affects every customer who ordered a drink. Ice is a food under Florida law, and a machine with mold throughout its chutes and interior walls is producing contaminated ice with every cycle. The stop-use order meant the machine could not legally operate until it was cleaned and sanitized.
The adulterated produce finding carries a specific legal weight. Under Florida Statute 500.04 and 500.10, food that is adulterated cannot be sold. The ice buildup making direct contact with cut carrots, spinach, and pineapple inside an improperly maintained freezer created conditions where the food could no longer be considered safe. The stop-sale order required those items to be pulled from sale entirely.
The handwashing failures documented here are among the most direct public health risks in any food service environment. Employees handling money, removing garbage, and applying sanitizer to surfaces, then returning to work with exposed food without washing hands, is a direct transmission route for pathogens. The absence of soap and paper towels at the hand sink compounds the problem: even an employee who intended to wash hands could not do so properly.
The finding that staff could not correctly answer questions about foodborne illness or symptoms, and that no verifiable training existed on employee illness reporting, means the store had no functioning system to keep a sick employee from handling food.
The Longer Record
The January 6 inspection was conducted as an "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit" check, meaning the store was already flagged before inspectors arrived. The supplemental report issued during the visit indicates inspectors had additional findings significant enough to require separate documentation for management.
None of the 17 violations were marked as repeats from prior inspections, but the breadth of what inspectors found, ranging from basic sanitation failures to chemical storage problems to mold in food equipment, points to conditions that do not develop overnight. A store operating without a valid food permit, with no certified food manager, no employee illness training, and no functioning handwashing station is not a store that recently slipped.
Zero violations were corrected before the inspection began. Several were addressed during the visit after inspectors intervened directly, instructing employees to wash hands, overseeing the disposal of adulterated produce, and watching as sanitizer buckets and aprons were relocated. The mold-contaminated ice maker remained under a stop-use order at the close of the inspection.