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By Emily Bouck, BouckE@Findlay.edu
Director of Dining Services at the University of Findlay, David Harr says the dining staff works to accommodate vegan and vegetarian students with certain protocols.
“The way the kitchen is set up we do all of the produce cutting in one area,” Harr said. “Then we have an area for simple servings, and so on. Even down to the cutting boards there are different colors for them.”
Elliot Jadoocki, a sophomore and environmental science major at UF is a vegetarian. He says he struggles to eat certain foods in Henderson Dining Hall and wonders if cross contamination could happen.
“Henderson creates a couple of problems when it comes to eating there as a vegetarian. One, there aren’t too many options in the first place. Two, there is a chance of cross contamination between what could be vegetarian and meat-based foods,” Jadoocki said.
However, Henderson Dining Hall works hard to prevent cross-contamination from happening.
“The kitchen is set up with cutting boards with red for meat, green which is vegetables, and white is ready to serve meals,” Harr said.
“For cross contamination, there is always a chance (especially at the self-serve options like the salad bar) that some of the meat has been accidentally dropped into the other available options or touched by them,” Jadoocki said.
Sodexo offers an app to show UF students the food options available to them.
“It is easy to identify,” Harr said. “We have the Everyday app that identifies the vegan and vegetarian options.”
“When they do have options, usually there is one place open with a vegan or vegetarian main dish,” Jadooki said. “But on some days, sometimes multiple days in a row, there will be no plant-based options that are actually main dishes open.”
Cruz Richard, a freshman Western Equestrian major, also expresses his concerns for fellow vegetarians and vegans.
“I have noticed that workers do not change their gloves in between handling meat products and veggies,” Richard said.
But Harr says they work to limit those incidents.
“We are always talking about cross contamination in the kitchen, in the standpoint of doing special dietary training and changing gloves in between,” Harr said.
