F0804

E

Failure to Maintain Safe and Palatable Food Temperatures During Tray Service

Saint Louis, Missouri Survey Completed on 02-04-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure that food and drink were served at palatable, attractive, and safe temperatures during tray service. The facility’s own policy, revised 10/1/23, stated that food is to be cooked to specified temperatures and times to mitigate dangerous microorganisms and identified the danger zone for food temperatures as above 41°F and below 135°F. Multiple cognitively intact residents reported dissatisfaction with the food, including one resident with anemia, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and inflammatory bowel disease who stated they barely ate the facility’s food and relied on their own snacks, another resident with heart failure and hypertension who said the food tasted bad, a resident with malnutrition who said the food was not good and often arrived cold, and a resident with renal disease and diabetes who said the food was sometimes served cold.

Surveyor observations and temperature checks during meal service showed that hot foods were not consistently maintained at or above 120°F and that cold foods were not kept at appropriately cold or frozen temperatures. At one lunch service, lasagna on a tray from the 200 unit was lukewarm, initially 125°F but dropping to 112°F after 15 seconds, coleslaw measured 66°F and appeared wilted, and sherbet was melted. On the 100 unit at another lunch, salad with creamy dressing was warm at 76°F, lasagna was 102.6°F, and rainbow sherbet was mostly melted at 28.2°F. During an evening meal on the 100 unit, an LPN measured chicken bites at 95.4°F, corn at 109.9°F, and a fruit cup at 70.5°F. The Dietary Manager stated she expected food to be served at 135°F when it reached the resident and sherbet to be served frozen, and the Administrator stated she expected food to be served at a safe and appetizing level.