Although Syracuse University’s dining halls are not affected by recent peanut butter recalls, Food Services is monitoring them closely.

Since June 2009, Food Services has pulled two products from its dining halls that were later reinstated, said Jim Ponzi, senior manager of Food Services, in an email.

Minor’s, a Nestle brand that makes various sauces and gravies, had its bases recalled on March 3, 2010. Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough was recalled on June 19, 2009, Ponzi said.

“Once the USDA cleared the product for distribution we incorporated it into the menu again,” he said.

Food Services has implemented policies to keep SU’s more than 20,000 students safe regarding food recalls. These policies require the management staff to be certified by the nationally recognized ServSafe program, although New York state law does not require this certification, Ponzi said.

“The senior staff is subscribed to the USDA recall notification program, and received emails daily on any recall,” he said.

Food Services takes various precautions to ensure the quality and safety of campus food. Some of these precautions include monitoring food temperatures by the hour, pasteurizing eggs, and using specific washes to cleanse the fruits and vegetables in the dining halls.

Despite these precautions, some students are still concerned with Food Services’ ability to keep them safe.

“I am always concerned with the food that I am getting in the dining halls to begin with, because they are always trying to get out a mass amount of food, and I wonder about the quality of food that I am eating,” said Mary Bromfield, a sophomore earth sciences major.

She also said food recalls are difficult to avoid and that it is on the factories to make sure they put out good products that won’t make people sick.

Foods that pose a high risk to consumers and are recalled often are not served in the campus’ dining halls, Ponzi said.

“Certain menu items are not served on the menu due to the number of recalls associated with a particular product,” he said.

With few options for places to eat on campus other than the dining halls, students must trust that the food they consume will not make them sick.

“You can see sometimes that the food comes in big, nondescript bags and it makes me wonder where the food started out from,” said Shavon McKinstry, a sophomore magazine journalism major. “I don’t know how well dining services knows the areas that their food comes from.”

Though some students expressed concern regarding the quality of dining hall food, Food Services has not experienced many recalls that affect the university’s consumers.

Said Ponzi: “On a national level, recalls occur daily, however we see very few recalls that impact products we purchase.”

Published on October 10, 2012 at 2:08 am

Contact Taylor: tblupo@syr.edu