Improper Food Storage, Labeling, and Expired Items in Dietary and Unit Areas
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to store, label, and monitor food items in accordance with its own policies and professional food service standards. During an initial kitchen observation with the Dietary Manager, surveyors found multiple opened food items that were not properly labeled or datemarked, including an open container of turkey base with only “November 27” written and no year or use-by/expiration date, two unlabeled zested oranges, an open container of ketchup with an illegible open date stored behind an unopened ketchup container, an opened bottle of maple syrup dated “August 8” with no year and thick brown buildup on the inside walls above the remaining syrup, and a bag of potato pancakes open to air with no open date, use-by date, or expiration date. The Dietary Manager stated that standard practice was to use items within 30 days of opening, that oranges used for zesting should be discarded after use, that food items without a year marked should be discarded, and that food should be closed and labeled when returned to the freezer, but these practices were not followed for the items observed. A subsequent observation of unit refrigerators and dry storage snacks revealed multiple expired single-serve cereal containers, including several containers of Special K Original Toasted cereal and Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain cereal with expiration dates that had already passed. The Dietary Manager stated that staff were expected to check each dried cereal package and discard expired items, similar to the process for refrigerated and frozen foods. The Administrator stated that once items are opened they should be dated and discarded after seven days, and that the expectation was that any opened item be dated and expired foods be discarded. The facility’s written policy on Food Storage and Datemarking required use of the first-in, first-out method, proper stock rotation by trained staff, and that leftover food items be covered or wrapped, clearly labeled, dated, and used within seven days or discarded, but the observations showed that these requirements were not consistently implemented for the food items found in the kitchen and on the units.
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