Thayer Dining Hall "barely passed" a state health inspection last week, according to Sanitarian Gary Quackenbush from the N.H. Division of Public Health Services Bureau of Food Division.
Thayer Dining Hall received a score of 72 out of 100 possible points on the surprise inspection on Nov. 20. Seventy is a passing score on the inspection.
Poor cooling measures and other small code infractions led to Thayer's low score, Quackenbush said. However, he added that overall he was impressed with the dinning facilities, especially with their cleanliness.
Quackenbush inspected all three dining facilities in Thayer Hall but gave the entire facility one grade.
"We license it as an entirety," said. "It is one establishment in our view."
At the beginning of the inspection day, the Thayer facility was given a failing score of 67.
Quackenbush said he discovered some spoiled meat in the refrigerator but once it was disposed of the penalty five points were restored and the score adjusted to a 72.
According to the inspection report, five points were deducted because of inadequate food cooling measures.
In 1993 the Food and Drug Administration altered its food hazard code analysis.
The current N.H. code, which allows cooked food to cool from 140 degrees to 45 degrees in two hours, differs from the federal regulation. The federal law says prepared food to cool from 140 degrees to 70 degrees in two hours and allows and additional four hours for the food to cool to 41 degrees.
Right now Food Court is not in compliance with the N.H. mandate.
"This is something that all facilities are struggling with right now," Quackenbush said. "This is a problem for many places that do volume preparation of food."
"We are trying to get away from he long period of time where [the food] is in the danger zone," Quackenbush said. "Ninety-eight degrees is the most dangerous temperature for pathogenic bacteria."
He said the federal agency wants to get through the most critical temperatures in the quickest possible time.
Dartmouth Dining Services Director Pete Napolitano said old equipment and the new federal guidelines all contributed to the low grade from the state.
Quackenbush said there were also other problems in the Thayer dining facility.
There was a cutting board over a sink that made it inaccessible which violates state code, he said. There were also two sinks that were missing splash guards.
The splash guards ensure that while someone is washing their hands no bacteria could splash onto the countertop next to the sinks.
A few items, such as the croutons, did not have sneeze guards, he said.
He also discovered an oversight in the Food Court salad bar, the refrigeration portion that keeps the salad dressings cold was not turned on that morning.
Quackenbush said he also made suggestions about the salad bar at Westside Buffet.
"I recommended they alter their set up to smaller containers so ice could totally surround the containers and the ice level would be as high as the food instead of just the bottom of the pan," he said.
Quackenbush said overall he was impressed with the dining facility and indicated it with the high rating on the cleanliness of the facility. He also said, "There are a lot of educated good folks there."
Quackenbush said he would recommend that Dartmouth Dining Services buy a blast chiller unit.
"It is a specialized piece of equipment that is designed to suck the heat out of food," he said.
Napolitano said the blast chiller would be an "immense amount of money," and is not a feasible expense right now.
He added that some practices will have to change because of the new guidelines and that a blast chiller "may be the only choice we have."
"As for the smaller items on the list, we are trying to take care of these issues one at a time," he said.
"I wasn't happy with [the score]," he said. "I would like to see better. We could have gotten better marks if we had taken a little better care especially with the sinks and plumbing matters."
