Failure to Remove Expired Food and Monitor Resident Refrigerators per Policy
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors identified that the facility failed to remove expired food items from resident refrigerators and failed to ensure thermometers were present, as required by facility policy. During an initial tour, one resident’s refrigerator contained two 15 oz cups of peaches that had expired on June 14, 2025; the resident stated that a cleaning staff member checks his refrigerator but not on a daily basis. Another resident’s refrigerator contained a partially consumed container of vegan cream cheese that had expired on May 15, 2025; this resident reported not having seen staff clean her refrigerator in days. A third resident’s refrigerator contained an 8 oz carton of milk and a 6 oz carton of a fortified nutritional supplement with smudged, illegible expiration dates; the contents of both cartons appeared white and curdled, and there was no thermometer inside the refrigerator. This resident stated that the facility does not check the temperature or contents of his refrigerator. The Housekeeping Director and the DON both reported that housekeepers are responsible for cleaning resident refrigerators daily and discarding expired foods. Facility policies on food brought in by family or visitors and on food storage from outside sources require regular cleaning of refrigerators, dating and discarding perishable foods per use-by or expiration dates, and daily staff checks of personal refrigerators for proper labeling, temperature recording, and storage between 34–40 degrees, as well as monitoring for food disposal needs.
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