Failure to Label, Date, and Discard Opened and Expired Food Items
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors identified a deficiency related to food storage and labeling practices in the facility’s kitchen, freezers, dry goods storage, and nourishment rooms. During an initial kitchen tour with the Dietary Manager, surveyors observed multiple opened food items in the front kitchen freezer and an outside freestanding freezer, including bread sticks, biscuits, and garlic bread, that lacked any opened dates or expiration dates. In the dry goods storage room, an opened package of hamburger buns and an opened loaf of bread that were no longer in their original packaging were also found without opened dates or expiration dates. The Dietary Manager acknowledged that all opened foods in the freezer and dry goods storage should be labeled with the date opened and the expiration date. Further observations in the nourishment rooms revealed additional labeling and dating failures. In the 400-hall nourishment room, surveyors found an opened container of nectar-consistency nutritional supplement with no opened date or expiration date, despite the manufacturer’s label stating it should be consumed within four days of opening. A disposable food container labeled with a resident’s name but without a date received or expiration date was also present. In the 100-hall nourishment room, a disposable food container with a resident’s name was dated but not discarded after the facility’s stated three-day limit for outside food. The Dietary Manager stated there should not be any expired food in the nourishment rooms, that nursing staff were responsible for labeling outside food with the resident name and date received, and that dietary staff were responsible for monitoring expiration dates and discarding expired food and supplements. The Administrator stated he expected staff to check for expired food and to label and date food stored in the kitchen and nourishment rooms.
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