Maintaining Sanitary Facilities

Our commitment to food safety and sanitation is found in everything we do in Dining Services. It is important to us that students, parents, and administrators understand the extent of our commitment and feel secure in their dining experiences on campus. Below are several ways that we maintain our exemplary sanitation status.

Annual Inspections

Dining Services works very closely with the local Health Department in creating sanitary facilities. Also, in the fall of 2000, the then Housing and Dining Services contracted with an independent company, Steritech®, to inspect our facilities semiannually for sanitation. These unannounced inspections are in addition to the Health Department inspections. They have the sole purpose of ensuring that we are maintaining our facilities in a sanitary manner at all times. While it is unrealistic to expect any operation to have no violations during an inspection, we pride ourselves in keeping these violations to a minimum. Violations can be deemed either critical or non-critical and while the term "critical violation" sounds severe, it is possible for an operation to have a critical violation while still maintaining an overall rating close to 100 percent, which is still a grade of A+.

Action Plans

As part of our commitment to food safety, action plans are created after every annual Health Department inspection. These plans detail what steps will be taken to resolve any situations identified during the Health Department Inspection. In addition, any training needs are identified and personnel are designated to oversee all corrective actions. These plans are written within 24 hours of the inspection and are then sent to the Health Department for review and approval. Current actions plans are listed with the food safety inspections scores.