Failure to Discard Expired Food in Resident Nourishment Refrigerator
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors observed that the facility failed to discard out-of-date leftover food items stored in the resident nourishment refrigerator. During an inspection, multiple food containers were found in the refrigerator, some labeled with dates indicating they were well past the facility's stated discard timeframe of two days, and one container was found without any label or date. The items included cooked chicken, corn, macaroni and cheese, cooked greens, a hard pink object identified as possibly turkey breast, blueberry pie, white cake, and another container with unrecognizable contents. Several of these items appeared hard, dry, or otherwise unfit for consumption. The Dietary Manager, who was present during the observation, acknowledged that all the items should have already been discarded according to facility policy and admitted that she had not checked the refrigerator the previous day due to being busy in the kitchen. She stated that it was her responsibility to check the refrigerator daily, Monday through Friday, for unlabeled or expired items, but the last check had been the previous week. The Administrator confirmed that the Dietary Manager was responsible for ensuring out-of-date food was discarded in accordance with policy.