Expired Produce Stored in Kitchen Refrigerator
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors observed that the facility failed to store and manage food in accordance with professional standards for food service safety. During an inspection of the kitchen's produce refrigerator, three boxes containing a total of 60 pounds of produce (salad lettuce, shredded lettuce, and diced green cabbage) were found to be stored past their labeled 'best by' dates. The produce was still available for serving to residents at the time of the observation. The Food Service Manager (FSM) confirmed during an interview that the produce was beyond the best by date and acknowledged it was not safe to serve. The FSM stated that it was his responsibility to review the produce daily and discard any items past their best by date, as per facility policy. The facility's Food Receiving and Storage policy requires that refrigerated foods be labeled, dated, monitored, and either used by their use-by date, frozen, or discarded. The Administrator also confirmed the expectation that no foods should be kept past expiration or best by dates. The failure to follow these procedures resulted in the deficiency cited by surveyors.