Bennett Hall, Kerr-Drummond Complex, Scott-Parker-Wentz Complex, Willham Complex, the Student Union Food Court, the Student Union Hotel and Westside Cafe cafeterias all have recently been cited for health violations, according to Payne County Health Department data.
A March 19 visit by health code inspectors led to an increased concern of cleanliness in the Student Union Food Court, mainly due to evidence of rodent, insect and other animal contamination. The visit also revealed an inadequate cold hold, or cold food storage area.
An inspection in November revealed six violations, including improper protection of food during storage or transportation, inadequate equipment to maintain food temperature, inadequate hand-washing facilities and unclean or unsanitary food-contact surfaces.
Mark Andalman, Student Union dining services director, said the food court tries to bring in a pest control service once a month.
“Anytime you have a building of this size, you’ve always got huge boxes that cockroaches and mice love to breed and live (in),” Andalman said. He said the evidence of insects or rodents, mainly mouse droppings, were found in a back storage room — not in a kitchen or dining room.
“I think we’ve got that under control because we haven’t found any more droppings.”
Frank Marburger, Payne County health inspector, said cafeterias and fast food restaurants often go on the medium risk list due to the way they serve food. He said medium risk establishments are closely watched for food temperature and storage violations.
Other campus eateries incurred multiple violations in the past year, including the Bennett Hall and Willham Complex cafeterias. Like the food court, Willham received a violation for evidence of rodent or insect contamination when it was inspected in October. Bennett received three citations on the same day.
A March inspection reflected that Willham’s employees were working to clean up the area, decreasing violations from four to three — but those three violations included inadequate equipment to maintain food temperature and unclean or unsanitary surfaces.
During spring break, the food service managers from Residential Life attended a food safety handling course that has to be administered every three years.
Other residential life employees were gone for spring break, said Jim Mott, food service manager.
“We promote what we learn and relearn to the employees,” Mott said.
Payne, Oklahoma and Tulsa counties are the only counties in Oklahoma that require one manager in every restaurant to be serve-safe certified, said Tony Black, residential life food production coordinator.
“Payne County is moving now to have every member of full-time restaurant staff serve-safe certified,” Black said.
The violation that occurred most frequently on campus showed that equipment used by the facilities was not adequate to maintain a product at the required temperature. This equipment was considered inadequate by inspectors in seven of the 13 on-campus places, Bennett included.
The violation occurring next most frequently was an inadequate cold hold. Four of the 13 eateries had unacceptable facilities, according to the inspector.
Those eateries included Bennett, the Scott-Parker-Wentz kitchen, the Student Union Food Court and Willham.
Chris Tinker, manager of Central Dining Services, which serves as the “grocery store” for the cafeterias on campus, said cleanliness is both a matter of pride and permanent record for OSU because all records can be accessed by the public.
“We visually inspect our establishments on a daily basis,” she said.
Tinker said managers follow health inspectors during inspections and make note of their comments and observations. Inspectors also provide managers with a report after each inspection.
“As soon as they leave, we react responsibly,” she said. “Most of the time, we do get excellent evaluations.”
Andalman said prevention of health violations is “just good housekeeping.”
“I would like to think it’s an ongoing plan,” he said.
Andalman said inspection citations vary because health inspectors make visits irregularly and at unannounced times.
“Certainly nothing there was terrible, or (the inspectors) would have brought that to my immediate attention,” Andalman said.
Marburger said violations are classified in order of seriousness.
The inadequate cold hold falls under the most serious category, which requires correction within 10 days. Insect and rodent contamination and inadequate equipment to maintain food temperature also require correction within 10 days, but are less serious. Unclean or unsanitary surfaces is a violation that must be corrected within 90 days.
Andalman said he tries to treat all violations with equal seriousness, but will prepare reports on the ones that have a higher priority. The food court often gets help from other Student Union employees in correcting mechanical violations.
“I think the goal is, ‘What can we do to have no citations?’” he said.
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