Deficient Food Storage and Pureed Diet Preparation
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure proper food storage and preparation practices, as observed during a survey. In the kitchen refrigerator, a bag of minced beef was found without a label or date, and an open, unlabeled bag of tortilla flour was also present. Both the Executive Chef and the Director of Nutrition Services confirmed that these items should have been labeled and dated according to the facility's policy and procedure for food storage, which requires all food to be covered, labeled, and dated to ensure safe consumption within use-by dates. Additionally, the facility did not follow proper procedures in preparing a pureed diet for a resident with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and dementia, who was on a physician-ordered regular diet with pureed texture. During meal preparation, kitchen staff used only hot water to puree cauliflower, rather than following the recipe that called for adding gravy, sauce, or other liquids to achieve the correct taste and consistency. The pureed cauliflower was found to be watery and bland, lacking the buttery flavor of the regular diet version, and did not meet the facility's standards for palatability and comparability to regular meals. Interviews with staff and review of facility policies confirmed that the required procedures for both food storage and meal preparation were not followed. The Director of Nutrition Services acknowledged that these failures increased the risk of foodborne illness and did not provide residents with nourishing, palatable, and attractive meals as required by facility policy.