Laurel Square Healthcare: Rotting Produce Found in Kitchen - PA
The inspector arrived at 9:50 a.m. and toured the kitchen. Inside a two-sided refrigerator, one side designated for dairy and the other for produce, she found shredded cabbage dated September 3 that had visibly spoiled. Two cases of zucchini, also dated September 3, showed green and black discoloration around the outside. Cantaloupe from September 3 had gone soft to the touch. And a case labeled August 20 held celery and cabbage, the celery visibly rotted.
The August 20 case had been in that refrigerator for over a month.
The facility's own food storage guide, drawn from the FDA Food Code and incorporated into dietary operations in 2017, states that produce may be kept for up to seven days from the date of receipt, or until visual spoilage is noted. Everything found that morning was well past both limits.
The Dietary Director, identified in the inspection report as Employee E3, confirmed during an interview that the produce in question was dated approximately three weeks prior and was spoiled. He was unable to explain why it had remained in the refrigerator for that long.
The Regional Director offered little more. He told the inspector that additional produce had been received since September 3 and stored in the walk-in refrigerator. He said the spoiled items had not been used in any meal preparation. He could not explain why they were still there.
Neither man could say who was responsible for checking the refrigerator, or why no one had removed the rotting food during the weeks it sat there.
The inspector also noted that the temperature log affixed to the exterior of the produce refrigerator showed a gap: no temperature had been recorded the night before, on September 22. Whether temperatures had been consistently monitored in the weeks prior was not addressed in the report.
The facility's own written policy, dated February 2023, requires that food be palatable, visually appealing, and served at a safe temperature. It calls for cooks to follow the principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, a food safety framework built around identifying and controlling contamination risks at every stage of food handling. Blackened zucchini and soft cantaloupe sitting in a refrigerator for three weeks does not reflect those principles in practice.
The violation was cited under F0812, which covers food procurement, storage, preparation, and service. Inspectors assessed the level of harm as minimal or potential, and noted that many residents were affected.
Laurel Square serves a population that depends entirely on the facility for its meals. Residents with compromised immune systems, diabetes, or other chronic conditions can face serious consequences from consuming spoiled food, though the report does not indicate that any resident became ill as a result of this inspection's findings.
What the report does make clear is that the spoiled food was there, that it had been there for weeks, and that the two staff members most directly responsible for the kitchen could not account for it.
The temperature log had a blank where a number should have been. The refrigerator had produce where a trash bag should have been. And on the morning an inspector finally looked, nobody had noticed, or nobody had acted.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Laurel Square Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center from 2025-09-23 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: June 27, 2026 · Our methodology
LAUREL SQUARE HEALTHCARE AND REHABILITATION CENTER in PHILADELPHIA, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 23, 2025.
The inspector arrived at 9:50 a.m.
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.