Food Safety and Hygiene Deficiencies in Dietary Services
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to store, prepare, and serve food in accordance with professional standards for food safety, as observed during kitchen and dining tasks. Multiple staff members, including kitchen staff and an assistant administrator, were observed with facial hair not fully covered by beard nets or hairnets while preparing and inspecting food. The facility's own policies required proper hair restraints, but staff were unaware or did not notice when these were not properly used. Additionally, expired food items, such as shredded lettuce and moldy cucumbers, were found in the refrigerator, and enteral feedings past their use-by date were stored in the dietary emergency food storage area. Staff responsible for inspecting and rotating food did not identify or remove these expired items as required by facility policy. During meal service, a certified nursing assistant was observed handling residents' food with bare hands, including peeling a banana and unwrapping bread, without performing hand hygiene between residents. Facility policy required food to be served in a manner that prevents foodborne illness, and staff interviews confirmed that hand hygiene and avoiding bare-hand contact with food were expected practices. The infection preventionist emphasized the importance of hand hygiene for all staff. These failures were observed on one of seven units reviewed during the survey.