Woodland Care Center: Food Safety Violations Found - CA
The dietary supervisor agreed. The enchiladas were dry, crunchy, and according to her, tasted more like a tostada than an enchilada. The facility's own standardized recipe required each portion to be topped with two ounces of sauce. What inspectors observed on April 7, 2025, was a small amount of sauce on top of food that had gone stiff on the steamtable before it ever reached a resident's plate.
The registered dietitian said residents might not eat the food because it was dry and would not be satisfied, and that the result could be weight loss. The dietary supervisor went further. She said a resident could choke on the dry enchiladas.
Both women said this while looking at food that had already been assembled for lunch service.
Federal inspectors from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had arrived at the facility, located at 7120 Corbin Ave. in Reseda, as part of a health inspection completed April 11, 2025. What they documented that afternoon in the kitchen and at the steamtable was a pattern of food prepared in ways that deviated from the facility's own written recipes and, in the assessment of the facility's own clinical staff, posed real risks to the people eating it.
The pureed vegetables served that same day presented a different problem. At 12:52 p.m., inspectors watched liquid running out of the puree on the steamtable. The vegetables were not holding their shape. During the test tray review shortly after, the registered dietitian said the puree should be round and firm enough to hold together. Instead, she said, it was runny, with water oozing out of it.
The facility's recipe for pureed cooked vegetables required the finished product to pass two specific tests: a spoon tilt test, which measures whether the food holds together, and a fork drip test, which requires the food to drip slowly through the slots of a fork in dollops rather than running freely. The puree served on April 7 did not appear to meet either standard.
The dietary supervisor said residents would not eat the runny puree, and that weight loss could follow. The registered dietitian identified a more immediate concern: residents with swallowing difficulties could struggle with food that runny, because it would not move through the throat the way a properly thickened puree does.
Pureed diets at nursing facilities are typically prescribed for residents who cannot safely chew or swallow regular food. The texture is not a preference. It is a medical accommodation. When that texture is wrong, the risk is not that a meal is unpleasant. The risk is aspiration.
The facility's own policy, dated January 16, 2025, stated that each resident would receive a nourishing, palatable, well-balanced diet meeting their daily nutritional and special dietary needs. A separate policy on menus, also dated that day, described food developed to meet resident choices while following national guidelines for nutritional adequacy.
The enchiladas and the puree vegetables were both on the menu for April 7. Both fell short of the facility's written standards. Both were identified as problems not by inspectors alone, but by the facility's own registered dietitian and dietary supervisor, standing at the test tray, tasting the food themselves.
CMS rated the deficiency at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with some residents affected. The facility was given the opportunity to submit a plan of correction.
The dietary supervisor said a resident could choke. The dietitian said a resident might not eat at all. Neither statement was a projection about what could happen someday. They were assessments made in the moment, about food already on its way to the dining room.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Woodland Care Center from 2025-04-11 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
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Last verified: October 29, 2026 · Our methodology
WOODLAND CARE CENTER in RESEDA, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 11, 2025.
The enchiladas were dry, crunchy, and according to her, tasted more like a tostada than an enchilada.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.