Improper Thawing and Inadequate Sanitizing of Kitchen Food Preparation Surfaces
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves failure to follow the facility’s own policies and professional standards for safe food thawing. During an early morning kitchen tour, surveyors observed two ten‑pound tubes of ground beef sitting in a basin on top of the meat sink counter, with red and clear juices dripping into the bottom of the basin. The Assistant Dietary Manager stated the meat had been removed from the freezer at 3:00 a.m., and the Dietary Manager later described the correct thawing process as either in the refrigerator or in a basin under running cold water. The in‑service materials and facility policy specified that food should never be thawed at room temperature and should be thawed only under refrigeration, under running drinkable water at or below 70°F, by microwave if cooked immediately, or by cooking to proper internal temperature. The ground beef had been left out for an unknown number of hours before being placed under running water, contrary to these standards. The deficiency also involves failure to properly clean and sanitize a food preparation surface after a spill of raw liquid eggs. A staff member emptied seven liquid egg boxes into a cooking pan, then placed the empty boxes back into their original storage box while liquid eggs dripped onto the food preparation surface. After disposing of the empty boxes, the staff member returned to the preparation area and wiped the liquid egg spill using paper towels, without donning clean gloves and without using the designated cleaning and sanitizing solutions. The staff member repeated wiping the surface with additional paper towels and then placed a box of frozen biscuit dough directly on the area where the spill had occurred, later returning the box to the walk‑in freezer. Facility in‑service documentation required that food preparation surfaces be cleaned by scraping food bits, washing with the “green bucket” cleaning solution, rinsing with clean water, sanitizing with the “red bucket” sanitizing solution, and allowing the surface to air‑dry, which was not followed in this incident.
We Help Long-Term Care Teams Stay Survey-Ready
We process and analyze inspection reports and plan of correction using AI to extract insights and trends so providers can improve care quality and stay ahead of compliance risks.