Food Storage for Employees
Employee Food Storage, Not Here (California)
Communities are responsible for proper food safety and storage of food. If communities do not follow proper food safety and storage guidelines they could be cited for a F-812 tag, which is listed as ‘Food Procurement, Store/Prepare/Serve- Sanitary’ according to the CMS proper food safety guidelines.
This happened to a community in California. Staff were storing their food inside of refrigerators and freezers where resident food was also being stored. The community was cited for F-812.
The way to avoid this is to have a separate cold storage unit for staff. Staff should still follow food storage guidelines and the employee cold storage units should be cleaned out weekly. Cold storage units for residents’ foods should have the temperature taken at least daily and be assessed for any expired foods. Using an AM/PM checklist may help to assist in monitoring for expired foods or foods that should not be stored together, such as resident and employee foods.