Failure to Maintain Sanitary Kitchen and Nourishment Storage Practices
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure that food was prepared, stored, distributed, and served in accordance with professional food service safety standards. During an initial kitchen observation with a kitchen staff member, surveyors noted multiple areas of dark, accumulated matter on the tile floor, especially in the corners, and a square depressed area under the dish sink containing wet black matter and solid debris. Additional visible debris was present under food preparation counters. Vent covers above the area where food carts were stored were coated with gray-brown matter, and the roll-up door adjacent to the tray line had rusted hinges with orange-brown substance and chipped paint along the painted wood beneath it. Walls behind and near the dishwasher had many black spots. A follow-up kitchen observation showed that these conditions remained unchanged, including peeling paint and rusty hinges near the tray line where food was plated, black matter and debris on the floor, the unchanged depressed area under the dish sink, black spots on the wall behind the dishwasher, and a sticky brown substance on the side of the range. The vents above the food carts also appeared unchanged. On resident units, the nourishment refrigerator on one hall contained a container of whole milk labeled only with a first name and no open or use-by date, and the bottom of the refrigerator had several spills of differing colors. The CNA present stated that the refrigerator should have been cleaned by cleaning staff, that the milk should have been dated, and that she was unclear how to determine use-by dates for residents’ food. On another hall, the nourishment refrigerator/freezer contained an open box of frozen tacos and an open quart of ice cream, both without open or use-by dates. The tacos were not individually wrapped, and the ice cream was not in individual servings. The freezer had several spills and small debris along the bottom and on the door shelves. The CNA present stated that containers should have receive, open, and use-by dates, that opened food should be used within three days and then discarded, and that the freezer appeared dirty and should have been cleaned. The kitchen manager later acknowledged that the kitchen floors, walls, vents, stove surfaces, and nourishment refrigerators were not clean, that he had not created a kitchen cleaning schedule, was unaware of any prior schedule, and was unsure who was responsible for cleaning certain areas. Facility documents indicated that food storage areas should be clean at all times and that designated staff would monitor foods and beverages from outside sources, but there was no available policy or schedule specifically for kitchen or nourishment refrigerator cleaning, despite an undated document listing daily kitchen cleaning duties such as stocking and cleaning nourishment fridges and sweeping and mopping.
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