Improper Food Labeling and Inadequate Sanitization in Dietary Services
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves failures in food labeling and dating, as well as improper use and monitoring of sanitizing solutions and dishwashing temperatures in the dietary department. Surveyors observed 15 cold sandwiches and 4 juices stored in a cooler without any dates or labels, and staff provided inconsistent information about when the items were prepared. Both the night supervisor and another staff member acknowledged that all prepared food items and beverages should be dated and labeled, and facility policy on sandwiches requires cold sandwiches made for non-immediate use to be dated, labeled with the food item, date made, and use-by date, and stored appropriately in the refrigerator. Surveyors also found that sanitizing solutions and the dishwashing machine were not maintained or monitored according to manufacturer and facility policy. Testing of a red bucket sanitizing solution showed 0 ppm, despite the manufacturer’s requirement of 200–400 ppm, and review of the sanitizing sink chemical log showed recorded levels of 100 ppm on multiple dates, below the recommended range. Dishwashing test strips applied to utensils and run through the dish machine repeatedly failed to change to the bright orange color required to indicate proper sanitizing temperature, instead remaining faded black/gray on several documented meal services. Facility policies require sanitizer solutions to be checked and logged before meal preparation and dish machine sanitizing parameters to be tested and logged before washing dishes from each meal, but the observations and records showed these standards were not met for the 146 residents receiving food trays from the kitchen.
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