Senior living community kitchen closed following health inspection

A senior living community has been ordered to close its kitchen until it can fix its insect and food-handling violations.  

State food safety inspectors temporarily shut down Brookdale Senior Living’s Lake Worth food service operation earlier this month after finding more than 500 dead roaches and more than 160 live roaches and flies in the Lake Worth, Florida, facility.

Inspectors found insects in the dry food store room—under food storage shelves, on a box of dry Jell-O mix, on glue traps, crawling on walls—and by the sandwich prep cooler, ice machine, meat slicer, floor mixer, dish machine racks, clean pan storage shelf and underneath the sink in the kitchen.

The report by the Florida Department of Business and Professional detailed a total of 13 violations, including:

• A reach-in cooler not maintained in good repair. All food in the cooler that’s used for thawing was 50 or warmer, above the mandated 41 degrees Fahrenheit
• Operating without a license from the Division of Hotels and Restaurants
• No proof of required state approved employee food safety training.

Brookdale spokeswoman Heather Hunter issued a request for comment to the Palm Beach Post:

“We are submitting the appropriate paperwork to rectify the delinquent Public Lodging Establishment Licensing issue and expect it to be resolved soon. All other citations have been cleared,” Hunter said. “Our kitchen and dining room were temporarily closed due to a pest control issue. As you know, pest issues are common in the Florida area, and we worked quickly to address the issue. Because the health and safety of our residents is important to us, we are continuing to invest in regular pest management measures to prevent something like this from happening again.”

Nicole Stempak

Nicole was Senior Editor at I Advance Senior Care and Long Term Living Magazine 2015-2017. She has a Journalism degree from Kent State University and is finalizing a master’s degree in Information Architecture and Management. She has extensive studies in the digital user experience and in branding online media. She has worked as an editor and writer for various B2B publications, including Business Finance.