No, don't worry about throwing away that marinara sauce that's nine days past its expiration date. Leave that raw meat on top of those onion rings too. It'll probably be fine.
Or not.
The latest routine inspections of several Ball State University dining locations by the Indiana State Department of Health — the first in years — revealed 54 health code violations, half of them critical.
University Catering, Elliot Dining, Barnes and Noble Café, the Atrium and the Tally all received violations. The violations included storing foods at wrong temperatures, not putting lids on trash containers, not dating food and keeping food after the discard date among many others.
Last semester, the Daily News reported several dining locations went years without health inspections. The university maintained that student health wasn't at risk and communication with the health department was positive. But five locations, some with multiple restaurants, received more than 50 violations.
If health and safety weren't issues, the health department would not regulate the food industry at all. Students may not be in imminent danger by eating at these locations, but even if one person gets sick as a result, it's too many.
Noyer Centre and LaFollette Square haven't been inspected yet. The health department likes to stagger inspections. Management of those two locations should probably take note of what the other places did wrong. A lot of the violations shouldn't be difficult to correct and several were corrected at the time of the inspection.
A lot of the rules and guidelines restaurants have to follow are precautionary, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be followed. When thousands of people's safety is at risk, the seemingly menial tasks food service workers are required to do aren't that inconvenient.
Even if conditions don't improve, or get worse, it's not like we have a huge choice. We have to eat on campus some, if not all, of the time. Students who are completely dependent on meal cards probably couldn't afford to eat in the Village every day or go grocery shopping every week.
Maybe Ball State should use part of its BOLD campaign money or any other fundraiser to help improve Dining. Not only is it dirty, it lacks healthy variety. Ball State has made vast improvements in academic programs and aesthetics in the past few years. Maybe Dining should be somewhere on the list.
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