PALM BAY, FL. Sky Zone Palm Bay was open and selling food on September 25, 2026, without a valid food permit, according to a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspection record, and it was not the first time inspectors had found exactly that.
The inspection, classified as an "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit" visit, resulted in four violations at the Melbourne-area trampoline park's convenience store. The permit violation was flagged as a repeat, meaning inspectors had documented the same lapse on a prior visit and found it unresolved.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector's own words on the permit finding: "Food Establishment is open and operating without a valid food permit." That observation was marked both Repeat and unresolved at the time of the visit. No correction was made on site for any of the four violations cited that day.
Beyond the permit, the inspector found that Sky Zone Palm Bay had no certified food protection manager certificate on the premises. When the inspector questioned the person in charge about employee health policies, that individual could not answer basic questions about preventing the spread of illness. Industry reference documents were provided during the visit to fill the gap.
The establishment also had no written procedures for employees to follow when cleaning up vomit or diarrhea, a protocol required under state food safety rules. Documentation was provided by the inspector during the visit, but the absence of those procedures before the inspection is the finding on record.
What These Violations Mean
Operating without a valid food permit is not a paperwork technicality. The permit process is the mechanism the state uses to verify that a food establishment has met baseline safety requirements before it sells anything to the public. A facility that is open and selling food without that permit has, by definition, not completed that verification process. When the same violation appears on a second inspection, it means the facility was aware of the lapse and continued operating through it.
The absence of a certified food protection manager compounds that concern. A certified manager is trained specifically to recognize and prevent the conditions that make people sick, including improper temperatures, cross-contamination, and employee illness policies. At Sky Zone Palm Bay, the inspector found no one on site who held that certification.
The person-in-charge violation is particularly direct. When an inspector asks the person running a food operation about employee health protocols and that person cannot answer, it means the policies designed to keep sick employees away from food are not being communicated, enforced, or understood at the facility level. The inspector provided industry documents on the spot, but that exchange does not substitute for training that should already be in place.
The missing vomit and diarrhea cleanup procedures address one of the most acute transmission risks in any public space. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness, spreads rapidly through improper cleanup of those incidents. A trampoline park that draws large numbers of children is exactly the kind of environment where that protocol matters most.
The Longer Record
The inspection record provided for this facility does not include a count of prior inspections on file, which limits how far back the documented history extends. What the record does show is that the permit violation found on September 25, 2026 had been cited before. The repeat designation is assigned only when an inspector has previously documented the same violation at the same facility and found it unresolved on a subsequent visit.
That means Sky Zone Palm Bay was told, on at least one prior occasion, that it was operating without a valid food permit. The facility continued to operate, and the next inspector who walked through the door found the same thing.
None of the four violations cited on September 25 were corrected during the inspection. The permit violation, the missing food manager certification, the gaps in employee health knowledge, and the absence of written cleanup procedures all remained unresolved when the inspector left the building.
What Remains Unresolved
Sky Zone Palm Bay is a convenience store operation inside a public recreational facility that draws families and children. As of the September 25, 2026 inspection, the establishment had no valid food permit, no certified food protection manager on the premises, a person in charge who could not answer questions about keeping sick employees away from food, and no written plan for handling one of the most contagious contamination scenarios in a shared public space.
All four violations were left unresolved at the close of the inspection.
