Food Storage and Sanitation Deficiencies in Dietary Services
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to store, prepare, distribute, and serve food in accordance with professional standards for food safety, affecting residents receiving nourishment from the kitchen. Review of facility policy showed that food was to be stored, prepared, distributed, and served in a manner ensuring food service safety, sanitary conditions, and prevention of foodborne illnesses. During a kitchen tour, a staff member was observed working without a hairnet, wearing a cap with unrestrained dreadlocks. The same staff member verified multiple sanitation issues, including a dried sticky substance on top of the ice maker, food debris in a container holding lids, and a dried red sticky residue in a two-bowl sink. In the walk-in refrigerator, a case of bananas dated as received on 12/23/25 was dark brown and very soft. In the dry stock room, food debris was present in the bottom of a container holding ketchup packets, and several packets of sugar substitute were found on the floor. In a reach-in refrigerator, a dried white substance was observed along the edges inside the door and along the gasket. Additionally, surveyors observed insulated plate bases on food delivery carts stacked in a wet-nesting manner, with 10 of 10 bases wet and not properly air-dried, which was verified by the Dining Manager. The facility census at the time of the survey was 65 residents, and the identified issues had the potential to affect more than a limited number of residents receiving nourishment from the kitchen.
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