F0812

F

Unsanitary Food Handling and Infection Control Failures in Dietary Services

Helena, Montana Survey Completed on 02-26-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves failure of kitchen staff to handle and serve food in a clean and sanitary manner in accordance with professional standards and infection control practices. During a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility, two dietary staff members were observed working in the food preparation area without wearing infection control face masks. During breakfast meal service, one staff member assembling resident breakfast trays wore gloves but used the same gloved hands to handle trays, tray cards, food racks, and then cupped her hand over open juice glasses without changing gloves or washing/sanitizing her hands, moving between clean and contaminated tasks. Another staff member was not wearing gloves and used bare hands to grab link sausages, cut them, and place them on plates, as well as to grab muffins, move eggs around on plates, and touch the inside of cereal bowls and plate surfaces where food would be placed, without handwashing, sanitizing, or donning gloves.

During an interview, another staff member stated that kitchen staff should never touch food with their bare hands, indicating that the observed practices were inconsistent with expected procedures. During lunch service, one staff member was observed cutting pizza and placing it on plates with bare hands, scraping beans from a serving spoon and moving them around on plates with bare hands, and placing buns on plates with bare hands. Another staff member cut a sandwich and placed it onto a resident’s plate with bare hands. These observations showed repeated failures by multiple dietary staff members to follow infection control precautions and sanitary food-handling practices during meal preparation and service for residents receiving food from the kitchen.