LAKE BUTLER, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors visiting Spires Market in Lake Butler found raw pork ribs stored directly above ready-to-eat products inside the meat department walk-in cooler, one of eight violations documented during a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services sanitation inspection.
The inspection, conducted February 2, flagged two priority violations, the most serious category under state food safety rules. An employee moved the pork during the inspection, but the problem had already been documented.
What Inspectors Found in the Deli and Meat Departments
The raw meat storage violation was documented in the meat department. The inspector's notes read: "Pork ribs over ready to eat product in walk in cooler." An employee moved the pork during the inspection.
In the deli department, inspectors found an employee who had not washed hands before putting on gloves and switching tasks. The inspector noted the issue was corrected after discussing it with the person in charge, and the employee washed hands during the visit.
The deli also drew citations for cooking pans encrusted with grease deposits, excessive dirt and food buildup on reach-in cooler shelves, and excessive dirt and food buildup on walls and floors. Inspectors noted excessive grease buildup on the vents above the fryers as well.
The meat department produced one additional citation: employees were not wearing beard guards. The inspector noted an employee put on beard guards during the inspection. A hand-wash sign was also missing from the men's restroom in the back room area.
What These Violations Mean
The raw meat storage finding is the most direct food safety concern in the February inspection. When raw pork is stored above ready-to-eat products, any dripping juices can contaminate food that will not be cooked again before a customer eats it. Salmonella and other pathogens present in raw pork survive on surfaces and in liquids, and cross-contamination in a walk-in cooler can affect multiple products at once.
The hand-washing violation in the deli carries a similar transmission risk. Gloves do not replace hand washing. An employee who skips hand washing before donning gloves transfers whatever was on their hands to the glove surface, and from there directly to food being prepared or handled. The deli is where Spires Market customers buy food that may be consumed with little or no additional cooking.
The grease-encrusted pans and heavy buildup on cooler shelves, walls, floors, and exhaust vents point to a cleaning routine that had fallen behind in the deli department. Grease and food residue on cooking surfaces and ventilation equipment can harbor bacteria and, in the case of vent buildup above fryers, present a fire risk over time. These are not cosmetic issues.
The missing hand-wash sign may seem minor, but state rules require the posting precisely because visual reminders affect behavior. Its absence in a staff restroom means employees working in the back may not have had a consistent prompt to wash hands before returning to food handling areas.
The Longer Record
The February 2026 inspection was not the first time state inspectors had visited Spires Market with concerns. Records show a prior inspection in September 2024 that produced five violations and carried the notation "Operating Without a Valid Food Permit." That inspection also met sanitation requirements, but the permit issue was a separate compliance problem layered on top of the sanitation findings.
A follow-up focused inspection conducted in March 2026, about five weeks after the February visit, found zero violations. That result suggests the issues documented in February were addressed, at least at the time of the follow-up.
None of the violations from the February inspection were marked as repeats from the September 2024 visit, which means the specific problems found in February had not been cited in the same form before. The store's inspection record now spans at least three visits across roughly 18 months, with violation counts of five, eight, and zero.
The zero-violation focused inspection in March is the most recent result in the record. But the February inspection's findings, particularly the raw pork stored over ready-to-eat product and the hand-washing lapse in the deli, were not corrected before the inspector documented them. Both priority violations were resolved during the visit itself, after the inspector intervened.
None of the eight violations from the February 2 inspection were marked as corrected on site in the formal sense, even though the inspector's notes describe employees taking corrective action during the visit for several of the priority items. The grease-encrusted pans, the dirty cooler shelves, and the buildup on the deli walls and floors were documented without any notation that they had been cleaned before the inspector left.
