Behind The Scenes: Chartwells Food Safety Protocols
By: Keiko Klisiewecz
It’s well known that the food on campus, particularly at Dalton Dining Hall, has faced some scrutiny over concerns about food safety and quality. Just a few weeks ago, a social media post featuring an undercooked burger caught my attention, prompting me to follow up on the issue. To gain a deeper understanding and address some additional concerns, we reached out to Dalton Dining Hall and scheduled an interview along with a cooking demonstration. This interview offers insight into their practices and efforts to improve the dining experience, and I’m excited to share the details with you.
Food safety is a cornerstone of any food service operation, especially when serving a large and diverse population like a university campus. Dalton let us know it has a commitment to food safety to do its best to ensure that every meal is prepared and served under the safest conditions possible, preventing foodborne illnesses and providing peace of mind to students.
According to Mary Beth Roberts-Sutherland, the retail operations director, “Chick-fil-A has received a lead twice for their food safety scores,” demonstrating a consistent focus on maintaining high standards. These audits, which occur often, are an essential part of ensuring that food safety protocols are adhered to rigorously. As she explained, the food safety audit score ranges from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best, and they have “never had below a 4, and it’s been over two years since we’ve had below a 2 … the last two have been 1s,” shared Beth.
The importance of regular inspections cannot be overstated. National chains like Starbucks and Chick-fil-A undergo inspections at varying intervals, with Chick-fil-A being checked every quarter, while others like Wendy’s are inspected semi-annually. “We always want to ensure the most consistent product,” emphasized Lauren Snelson, the assistant director of university services, which includes maintaining consistent cooking standards and ensuring the proper temperature is reached during food preparation. For example, ensuring that meat is cooked to the correct internal temperature, such as cooking chicken, one of the meats featured in the demonstration, to 165°F for 15 seconds, is vital to killing harmful bacteria like salmonella, which can otherwise lead to serious health issues.
One critical aspect of food safety is the handling of temperature-controlled for safety (TCS) foods. The “temperature danger zone,” which ranges from 40°F to 140°F, is a threshold where harmful bacteria can multiply rapidly. As Mary Beth explained, “Our standard is once you open it, you have seven days,” underscoring the importance of using food within a set timeframe to ensure freshness and safety. This stricter approach, set by Compass, Chartwells parent company, which includes discarding leftovers after four days and pre-cooked products after seven, goes beyond the minimum food safety code to ensure that all food served is safe for consumption. In fact, James Pfifferling, chef at Dalton Dining Hall, even gave us a demonstration of him cooking both chicken and beef patties to show the process and how he determined when the meat was safe to consume.
In high-traffic areas like university dining halls, food safety is even more critical due to the varied needs of the student population. “We can have people with autoimmune diseases, elderly students or those with food allergies coming through our lines every day,” said Snelson. This means the food service must be prepared to handle a wide range of dietary requirements and medical conditions, which is why more stringent food safety practices are implemented. In addition, training programs like ServSafe, which certify managers and supervisors, ensure that food safety standards are maintained consistently across all dining locations. As Snelson noted, “We require at least one ServSafe certified manager at each location to oversee and enforce food safety procedures.”
However, despite these protocols in place, it is of note that most of the staff are fellow students, who are learning too, possibly at their first job. Mistakes happen and changes won’t be made unless students step up. I would urge students to not be afraid to report food safety issues at any location, to ensure that they are correctly handled and possibly to improve food quality. We can’t assume that they know these issues are happening unless we bring it to their attention. Students can use the feedback form on dineoncampus.com or reach out to this number: (540) 307-4184 anonymously. Overall I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of detail that goes into food safety here at RU and I’m glad I took the time to reach out to Chartwells regarding my concerns. Don’t be shy with your food safety. You’ve got to speak up if you want changes made.
