No, a student did not find a tapeworm in their food at the DC.
This was clarified by Jennifer Ferrell, VP for student engagement during a student assembly meeting, in which she clarified that what the student thought was a tapeworm was actually a piece of cartilage from a piece of meat.
Despite the rumors, Keene State College Dining was put to the test on November 1, receiving a few points off for their storage of cream cheese and sour cream in Lloyd’s, the temperature of the cooked chicken tenders in the DC and the lack of parasite destruction available at the Lloyd’s sushi station, among others.
However, the Night Owl Café received no points off. According to inspection records dating back to 2018, the NOC has historically not received a lot of points off during inspections, save for an inspection in the Fall of 2019 and another inspection in Fall of 2018.
Bonnie Blanchard, the Director of Operations at KSC Dining, said that this is because the NOC is entirely portable. “They pick up and leave,” Blanchard said. She noted that the only equipment that does not move is the reach-in refrigerator.
This is opposed to the DC, which has “upwards of 40 refrigerators,” Blanchard said.
The DC has historically received points off for a variety of reasons from food storage to the PPM of the dish washing sinks. Blanchard noted that the DC’s former dishwasher would also get points off.
Blanchard said the “old, ancient critter” needed to be serviced “every other week,” and was replaced in December of 2019.
Despite the historic points off, Blanchard said, “I don’t think we’ve ever had a critical [item],” an item that needed to be replaced immediately.
Tom Benoit can be contacted at
tbenoit@kscequinox.com
