checking temperature of meat in the oven

Food Safety

Each day, Penn State serves more than 20,000 meals across the state. Food safety is our top priority as we strive to give our customers a quality dining experience.

We have several measures in place to ensure the safety of the foods we serve, including the following:

  • Each operation is inspected annually by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
  • Each operation is inspected every fall and spring semester without advance notice by the Penn State Corporate Executive Chef’s office.
  • Our Executive Chef and many managing chefs and managers are certified instructors for ServSafe.
  • All managers and full-time food service employees (whether cook, production worker, server, or janitorial) are ServSafe certified by the National Restaurant Association every five years.
  • All student co-workers and wage employees are required to complete an online Food Handler food safety course.
  • Temperatures are taken and recorded for hot and cold foods during each meal to ensure temperatures fall within safe ranges for holding or serving food. When a food item is not within the proper temperature, it is removed and either brought back up to the proper temperature or discarded.
  • All products Penn State purchases must meet certain specifications, including applicable USDA, FDA inspection requirements, safety requirements of suppliers and vendors, and third-party audit requirements.

Despite these measures, the sheer volume of food we serve daily increases the odds that rare incidents will occur. These issues are as troubling to us as they are to the student or guest who experiences them, so we want to know about them right away. We want to make sure our student or guest is okay and then investigate the problem.

The quickest way to alert us is to ask for a manager where you dined or contact us.

When a student or guest alerts our staff of a food safety incident, we gather the pertinent information and immediately notify the Corporate Executive Chef, who then conducts an investigation. When the investigation is complete, we take the appropriate measures to minimize the possibility of a recurrence. We will continue to do all we can to ensure our students and guests enjoy safe and quality food in our Campus Dining locations.