Quality control issues hit Dining Services

04/10/08 - The University of Rhode Island's procedures for maintaining the quality of food served to students have been questioned and doubted by some Dining Services employees.Their concerns follow the discarding of more than $6,000 worth of hamburger patties last semester, out-of-date dressings and mayonnaise being served in the Ram's Den, out-of-date products being thrown out and general doubt about the control of food products.

Dining Services, which operates on a $21 million budget, according to its director Kathleen Gianquitti, oversees the distribution of food to Hope Commons, Butterfield, the Ram's Den and 11 other establishments that accept Dining Dollars.

Dining Services' administrators and employees gave various reasons for the recent mishandling of out-of-date products.

About a month ago Associate Administrator of Dining Services Michael McCullough threw away 92 cases of condiments because they were out of date. Seventy of the cases included relish, sweet and sour sauce, honey mustard and ketchup, and were valued at $950. An unknown number, however, were distributed to customers at the Ram's Den.

Gianquitti said she does not believe that the "code date" stamped on products represents the absolute must use-by date, saying that if one was to consume milk past its date, it would not be a hazard assuming it was used within a reasonable amount of time.

"Code dates mean it is best used by, not 'oh my god I'm going to get sick if I eat this,'" Gianquitti said.

She said Dining Services removed the items to avoid customer confusion.

"I don't want misunderstanding with customers that might misinterpret what a code date might mean," Gianquitti said.

In an internal Feb. 28 e-mail to Ram's Den Manager JoAnne Stephens, McCullough wrote, "I will have all out-dated product picked up from satellite operations and then disposed as most are too expired for donation. Please reorder what is needed to be replaced keeping in mind that these items are obviously not turned around as fast as they once [were]."

McCullough's e-mail addressed the crux of the problem in Gianquitti and other administrators' eyes: the Ram's Den does not do as much business as Dining Services projected it would after Hope Commons opened.

"I misjudged the product that was going to be used in the course of the semester," Gianquitti said, referring to her food orders for this year. "I expected students would go to the Ram's Den at a rate higher than they are."

Ahmed Bharoocha, who has worked at the Ram's Den for six years, said he believes the sharp fall-off of customers in the Ram's Den has affected the quality of the food.

"When we lose our customers, the quality of everything goes down," Bharoocha said.

Last week, a Cigar reporter saw Ken's Lite Mayonnaise in the Ram's Den refrigerator that was manufactured in June 2007.

Amy Skolonick, a customer service representative for Ken's, said, "Mayonnaise is only good for four months from the date they were manufactured." After the four months Skolonick said, "it should be discarded." Once opened, the product is recommended to be used within 14 days.

The mayonnaise in the Ram's Den refrigerator has been out of code for more than five months. In addition to the mayonnaise, French dressing and deli mustard manufactured in July 2007 were also in the refrigerator.

People familiar with Dining Services procedures said that the misestimate of the Ram's Den's traffic was not the only reason for items going out of code.

"Some products will go out of code and that's inevitable when you're buying in bulk," Brian Jenkins, a four-year employee of Dining Services, said. He added, "We're running out of space . and it's just difficult to check things all the time because of the sheer quantity that comes in."

Quantity was not the only facet of the food that bothered Jenkins, who noted that not all products come with clear expiration dates.

"A lot of products that we get don't have a code date. So sometimes we don't even know if a product has gone bad. Normally there shouldn't be any product that has gone bad," Jenkins said.

The quantity of products received by Dining Services concerns some employees, who claim it is difficult to maintain control of more than 6,000 products across a system of three dining halls and numerous satellite operations.

"Rotation isn't the issue, there's just too much product. It can't be used before its expiration time," said a Dining Services employee who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.

Steven Mello, an associate administrator of Dining Services, said expired or close to expired products could get through the warehouse and employees for numerous reasons.

Product could get by if "unaware students didn't catch it fast enough," he said.

Mello said that when pallets are delivered to the warehouse, they sometimes are not immediately approved for receiving because of time constraints without first checking the contents. Employees quickly spot-check the pallet and then double-check the codes at a later time, when the pallets are taken apart, Mello said.

But a dining services employee familiar with the system doubted if the policy is actually put into practice.

"We process millions of dollars worth of food product and it can just not be handled at the facility. It is functionally obsolete," the employee said. The employee later added, "I don't think this is Ebola waiting to be swept over campus, but it does need to be addressed."

The employee was also disappointed with an attached freezer trailer to the warehouse that is used to store additional food. Last semester, the trailer broke and at least $6,000 worth of hamburger patties were thrown away.