Failure to Properly Label, Date, and Dispose of Expired Food in Resident Refrigerators
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that food stored in both a designated nutrition refrigerator for resident use and in personal refrigerators in residents' rooms was properly labeled, dated, and that expired items were disposed of in a timely manner. During an observation with the Assistant Director of Nursing, multiple expired, unlabeled, and undated food items were found in the shared nutrition refrigerator, including a nutritional shake past its use-by date, an unlabeled and stale breadstick with red sauce, an unidentified liquid with separated particles, a visibly wilted and moldy side salad, several yogurts past their use-by dates, and a partially eaten baked potato with mold. These findings were confirmed by the ADON at the time of observation. Further inspection of five residents' personal refrigerators revealed additional concerns, such as expired cream cheese spread, protein shake, yogurts, rice pudding, and an opened, undated jar of pickles past its use-by date. The facility's policy requires all food brought in by family or visitors to be labeled with content and date, and for prepared food to be consumed within three days or discarded. The failure to follow these procedures was confirmed during the observations, affecting three of five residents reviewed for personal refrigerators and potentially impacting all residents using facility refrigeration for personal food items.