Failure to Maintain Safe and Appetizing Food Temperatures
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure food and beverages were palatable, attractive, and maintained at safe and appetizing temperatures in accordance with the FDA Food Code and the facility’s own policy. The facility’s policy required cold foods to be held at 41°F or below and hot foods at 135°F or above before leaving the kitchen, and hot foods to be 120°F or above at point of service. Review of the service line checklists for 02/01/2026–02/15/2026 showed missing temperature documentation for prepared food items and eleven cold food items recorded at 42°F before leaving the kitchen, which exceeded the FDA Food Code limit. The facility was not consistently taking and documenting all food temperatures prior to sending food to residents. During the complaint survey, multiple residents reported that their food was not hot when served, with one resident stating the food was not always hot, another stating the food was not hot when received, and another stating that the food “sucks.” At 12:58 PM on the survey date, the dietary manager took temperatures of a meal tray for a specific room, finding spaghetti with meat sauce at 120.7°F, green beans at 112.1°F, and vanilla ice cream at 23.5°F. While the spaghetti met the 120°F point-of-service expectation, the green beans were below 120°F, and prior documentation showed cold foods leaving the kitchen above 41°F. These observations and interviews demonstrated that hot foods were not consistently served hot and cold foods were not consistently served cold, resulting in failure to follow the FDA Food Code and the facility’s policy and procedure.
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