Virginia Department of Health inspection records show that every University dining facility, with the exception of Newcomb dining hall, Java City and the French House, was cited with at least one critical violation at its most recent inspection.
Routine health department inspections take place at random without warning to facilities. Most of the latest inspections took place in the past year, although a few locations have not been visited since the fall of 2002.
Some facilities, including Pavilion XI, Runk Hall and the Castle, had up to five critical violations, ranging from employees neglecting to wash their hands to food being stored at improper temperatures.
In one instance at Pavilion XI, health department officials found prepared cooked chicken salads being stored at a temperature of 53 degrees in an Oct. 1 inspection. Potentially hazardous food must be stored below 41 degrees to inhibit bacterial growth, according to the health department.
Another critical violation took place at Runk dining hall Sept. 10 when an employee handled a faucet after working with raw beef and a different employee subsequently touched the same faucet and headed to a food preparation area.
Both incidents were corrected on site, the health department reported.
The health department defines a critical violation as a practice that likely could lead to food-borne illness if left unresolved.
"It's a risk factor -- it's like running a red light," said Eric Myers, an environmental health specialist senior at the health department. Myers stressed that he could not specifically comment on University facilities.
Myers said while worrisome, critical violations occur with some frequency and generally are remedied quickly.
"It's not uncommon, especially in very large facilities," Myers said. "Some violations are more concerning than others -- but 95 percent of the time, they are corrected immediately."
Director of Dining Services Brent Beringer said Aramark, the food service company contracted by the University, takes numerous precautions to ensure the safety of its dining facilities and in six recorded years, the company has no documented cases of food-borne illness.
"You have to look at it as normal versus where we ideally want to be -- very rarely is there a situation where there aren't one or two critical violations," Beringer said. "We're very proud of our safety record. We don't like to have safety violations, there's no question about it -- everyone understands they need to be working toward 100 percent."
Dining services employees go through training upon hiring and then undergo retraining every semester. In cases where there is a health department violation, employees may be sent to extra retraining.
"Sometimes it's as simple as talking through proper hand washing sanitation, sometimes it's a more involved thing and we hold a course at the location," Beringer said.
He added that dining services contracts a private, third-party inspector to supplement the infrequent health department visits and also employs two individuals to watch over the safety practices at the various dining locations.
University spokesperson Carol Wood said the University will sustain its contract with Aramark.
"We understand that there will be violations from time to time -- the University takes those violations extremely seriously," Wood said. "Our policy has always been to work closely with Aramark not only to get the violations immediately corrected but also to put into place measures that will prevent them from happening again."
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