The food catered by UCLA’s dining halls is continually inspected and managed with care to ensure its safety.
“Our current program is a commitment on quality and safety on all levels,” said Roger Pigozzi, assistant director and corporate chef for dining services and catering.
The staff members, including students, undergo a training process to ensure that delivery, storage and preparation of the food being served follows all the rules and regulations established by the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environment, Health and Safety Department.
“We partner with UCLA’s EHS, and they frequently visit our dining locations to ensure that we are running safe operations,” said Charles Wilcots, associate director of budgets and information for dining hall services.
These weekly inspections include visual examinations, temperature logs, general cleanliness and employee surveys, and safety assessments such as blocked passages.
Joshua Witt, EHS program manager, said that the regulations are from the 2007 California Retail Food Code, based on the FDA Model Food Code.
“We buy as purchased items, products to be cooked and served, and then we also have our commissary or central kitchen located in De Neve where we make many of our own items.” Pigozzi said.
In the case of behavior that does not comply with rules within a dining hall, such as food preparation without gloves, the individual will go through a disciplinary process where the error is explained and corrected.
“All of our team members are food certified and they go through quarterly trainings which are ongoing,” Wilcots said.
The training looks at proper usage of equipment, uniforms, hand washing and general sanitation.
When asked whether there have been any health and safety related issues, Wilcots said “there have been no cases.”
Many of the frequent recalls have gone unnoticed by the student population.
Witt explained that numerous e-mails regarding food safety come in each day. Only those that are of valid concern and applicable to UCLA get passed down to the food facility managers.
“In case there would be an incident, then we would have a sample of every item saved,” Pigozzi said.
“The peanut butter we were serving, we had a letter from our vendor stating that it was safe. … We thought it would be wise not to create any fear and doubt,” Wilcots said.
In the case of salmonella, security measures were set in place.
“If there is evidence that FDA identifies a potential risk, we will respond very conservatively,” said James Gibson, director of EHS office.
Much to the disappointment of students for whom peanut butter has been a daily necessity since childhood, it has been eliminated from the dining halls for further safety assessments.
“It doesn’t disturb me because I don’t eat peanut butter as often as I could”, said first-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student Shamim Nafea.
Students themselves can augment food safety by practicing good hygiene.
“Not always but often (contamination) can be prevented if there is effective hand washing and making sure people who are sick do not work around food,” Gibson said.
Health and safety in the dining halls has drastically increased since the 1970s. “Health professionals of the Arthur Ashe Wellness Center have detected no food safety problems, and if they had, they would be noticing students coming there for that kind of care,” said Claudia Luther, member of the Office of Media Relations at UCLA.
The UCLA Winter Quarter 2009 survey questions from the dining news and events online page reflected 90 percent satisfaction for taste and cleanliness.
UCLA students also consume food from facilities that are certified but not part of UCLA’s dining hall responsibilities.
Health inspectors supervise the processes of food preparation in non-dining hall facilities, but they are not under the supervision of the UCLA dining hall program.
“We are clean, we’re just not perfect. … We don’t follow as safely the safe food temperature range. … We are supposed to keep food below 40 degrees or above 140,” said Jeff Poirier, a first-year psychobiology student and Bombshelter employee.
A majority of students said they did not question the processes in food handling, or the overall safety of the food provided in the dining halls.
“Personally, I’ve never seen any violations because they are pretty careful safety-wise,” said Terry Li, a Taco Bell employee and first-year business economics student.