The Dining Hall facility in Lawrence Hall passed a health inspection conducted by the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) on Oct. 2, keeping Point Park’s green placard status with the department.
Although the facility did pass the inspection, it was not completely violation free. Low-risk violations included food temperature issues, problems with hand washing facilities and pest control. High-risk violations, however, included cross-contamination prevention and cleaning and sanitization.
In total, the Dining Hall had two high-risk violations, one medium-risk violation and six low-risk violations. According to the inspection, pizza cutters and other tools were stored in “stagnant dirty water.” One low-risk violation, a compactor door with gaps to the outside, is considered a repeat violation.
According to ACHD, a low-risk violation “may not directly cause food-borne illness but controlling these violations helps create safe conditions and prevent high and medium risk violations from happening.” Pest management is considered a low-risk violation if food is not being eaten by pests.
A high-risk violation, however, are problems that “may lead directly to food-borne illness or injury, and where there is no other way to guard against the risk.” Ever since CulinArt took over Point Park’s food facilities, none of the on-campus facilities has ever been shut down due to high-risk health violations.
Chris Brussalis, president of the university, says that low-risk violations are not uncommon during health inspections. Low-risk violations alone would not cause a facility that handles food to be shut down, and Brussalis notes that the university still passed the health inspection.
ACHD plans on returning to the Dining Hall on Oct. 16 for a follow-up inspection. These are often done to check if a restaurant or food facility is properly taking steps to mitigate previous health violations.
Keith Paylo, Dean of Student Affairs, promises that high quality food and service are still of utmost importance to him and the Dining Hall staff.
“The Dining Hall staff has always taken pride in their processes to ensure the best dining experience possible for our students, faculty, and staff,” Paylo said. “The dining hall staff continues to concentrate on their attention to detail for each meal served, breakfast, lunch, dinner, in the Point Cafe, and at Point Perk. The goal is always to deliver the best quality of food and service. I always welcome comments and questions for changes or improvements to this service.”
Paylo said that he is always receptive to feedback about Point Park’s food services in order to improve quality.
CulinArt, which is Point Park’s food service provider, is hosting tabling sessions in the Dining Hall with executives and managers of the company to collect student feedback on issues such as food quality and staffing.
The managers and executives hosting the tabling event were unable to comment.
A copy of the inspection report can be viewed here.
