Casselman Healthcare: Cold Food Violations Found - PA
Those were the findings at Casselman Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center when a state inspector arrived on a complaint inspection September 17, 2025, and followed a lunch tray from the kitchen to the west wing.
The meal that day was baked fish, rice, and mixed vegetables. At 11:31 a.m., a test tray left the kitchen. Thirty minutes later, it arrived on the west wing. Trays went out to residents in their rooms, and the last resident was served and eating by 12:06 p.m. That's when the inspector checked the temperatures.
The baked fish registered 122.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The mixed vegetables came in at 119.0 degrees. The facility's own food safety policy, updated as recently as April 7, 2025, requires hot food to be held at 135 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, in line with the Federal Food Code. Both the fish and the vegetables fell well short of that mark. The mixed vegetables weren't just cold on a thermometer — the inspector noted they were cold to the experience of eating them, describing them as unpalatable.
The rice fared better. Regular rice measured 143.3 degrees. The mechanically altered portions of the meal, prepared separately for residents who cannot manage whole food textures, measured 144.3 degrees for the fish and 147.1 degrees for the rice — both within range. But the mechanically altered vegetables were not recorded separately in the inspection findings, and the standard mixed vegetables that most residents received did not meet the threshold.
The dietary director was interviewed at 12:09 p.m., three minutes after the temperatures were taken. According to the inspection report, the director confirmed that food should be served at correct temperatures and be palatable. That was the extent of what the director offered.
The inspection cited the violation under F0804, which covers the requirement that food and drink be palatable, attractive, and served at safe and appetizing temperatures. Inspectors categorized the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that many residents were affected — reflecting that the temperature failures applied across the meal service, not to a single tray or a single room.
Cold food in a nursing home is not a trivial complaint. Residents in long-term care are often already contending with poor appetite, difficulty swallowing, or conditions that make eating a physical effort. A meal that arrives cold and unappetizing is a meal that may go uneaten. For residents who are underweight, recovering from illness, or dependent on adequate nutrition to heal, that matters. The inspection report does not document whether any resident refused the meal or suffered a specific consequence from the temperature failures that day, but the finding covers many residents, and the problem was confirmed by the facility's own dietary leadership on the spot.
The 35-minute window between when the tray left the kitchen and when the last resident was served and eating is the gap where the temperature dropped. Whether that reflects a problem with how food was held before leaving the kitchen, how quickly trays moved through the wing, or how residents were served in sequence, the inspection report does not say. What it says is that the fish and vegetables arrived cold, and the person responsible for the dietary program acknowledged it should not have happened.
Casselman Healthcare's own written policy set the standard. The inspector measured against it. The food did not meet it.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Casselman Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center from 2025-09-17 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.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: September 17, 2026 · Our methodology
CASSELMAN HEALTHCARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER in MEYERSDALE, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 17, 2025.
The meal that day was baked fish, rice, and mixed vegetables.
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.