Failure to Label, Date, and Discard Food Items in Food Storage Areas
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors observed that the facility failed to properly label, date, and discard food items in multiple storage areas, including the walk-in freezer, walk-in refrigerator, kitchen refrigerators, and nutrition room refrigerators. Specifically, opened packages of hamburger meat, tater tots, diced potatoes, chicken tenders, cookie dough, and garlic bread in the walk-in freezer were not labeled or dated. In the walk-in refrigerator, individual salads lacked prepared dates, and some salads contained brown lettuce. Opened packages of deli ham and various thawed meats in the kitchen refrigerators were either not labeled, not dated, or stored contrary to manufacturer instructions. The facility's posted guidelines indicated that thawed meats should be used within three days, but this was not consistently followed. Further observations in the nutrition rooms revealed multiple expired or unlabeled items, including nectar thick liquids, prune juice, orange juice, apple juice, and a take-out food container. Some items were kept beyond their recommended use-by dates, and others lacked any date or identifying information. Interviews with the Dietary Manager and Administrator confirmed that there was no consistent system in place to ensure all foods were labeled, dated, and discarded when expired, despite their expectations that such practices should be followed.