Why inspectors halted ‘all food equipment’ use at a South Florida grocery

Business admin August 26, 2026 0 Comments

Why inspectors halted ‘all food equipment’ use at a South Florida grocery

A Lauderdale Lakes grocery store with two names and four major problems has been shut down for eight days, as of Wednesday, after a state inspection.

Whether you know the place at 3891 NW 24th St. as Halal Supermarket Fish Meat Produce or Caribbean Supermarket Fish Meat Produce, it lacked too many basics such as running water and sanitizer for Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors Steven Mentor and Francis Odio.

Ag department inspectors, who check grocers, packaged food sellers, bakeries, food processors and food storage faciltiies, don’t have the power to shut down a place as state restaurant inspectors do. But they can slap Stop Use Orders on areas and equipment that can make doing business hard to impossible.

For the violation of “No running water available at the establishment at the time of the inspection,” the inspectors dropped a “Stop Use Order issued for all open food processing/dispensing/packing, and all food equipment and kitchen utensils.”

No one answered the phone number for Halal Supermarket, and the number for Caribbean Supermarket went to voicemail. The license is for “Fish Meat and Produce,” owned by Lauderhill Supermarkets, which state corporate records say is run by president Afrin Montaj.

To lift the Stop Use Orders, the inspection said, the “establishment must have running water, b.) a probe thermometer must be obtained, c.) chemical sanitizer and corresponding test strips must be obtained and d.) all equipment and utensils must be properly washed, rinsed, and sanitized.”

Lacking water and sanitizer got the store cited for several violations, although it didn’t matter for the cutting board that had “deep grooves/cuts and can no longer be effectively cleaned and sanitized.”

Without a probe thermometer to make sure foods are being stored within the proper temperature ranges, chicken wings, chicken fingers and a drumstick inside a meat display cooler were 13 to 17 degrees too warm and got hit with Stop Sales.