The University Housing’s central kitchen, which distributes food to other campus eateries, stopped using a commercial dishwasher and soap intended for pots and pans to wash its potatoes within a day of the technique becoming publicly known.
Following the July 11 Emerald article, “UO uses dishwasher on potatoes,” Food Services Director Tom Driscoll addressed the potato washing practice in a July 18 letter to the editor published in the Emerald, and explained that Carson Central Kitchen had “immediately ceased that practice and has) returned to using the method recommended by the Oregon Food Code.”
University Housing had received notification July 10 from Environmental Health and Safety, a University department charged with food safety oversight, and made immediate modifications. Driscoll said Monday that he no further comment beyond the letter.
Several food service employees working in the central kitchen, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their jobs, confirmed that the practice had ceased.
The questionable technique was brought to public attention by one such employee who had attempted to have the practice corrected, but was ignored. He said he contacted the Emerald only after Carson Central Kitchen Chef Doug Lang told him that running whole potatoes intended for baking through the dishwasher using a commercial chemical soap called “Solid Insure” was acceptable.
What is still largely unknown is how the procedure escaped oversight for as long as it did.
Multiple food service employees contacted the Emerald to confirm that the routine had been in place for as long as Lang had been employed and was well known. Several noted that although the unofficial policy was to run uncooked potatoes through the dishwasher to save time, those who felt the practice to be unsafe disregarded orders and washed them by hand instead.
Lane County Environmental Health, which is responsible for monitoring all food service outlets in the county does not have oversight of the University’s food production, which is handled by University Housing and the independent EMU Food Services. Instead, Environmental Health and Safety Director Kay Coots inspects facilities. Coots was unavailable for comment.
Kristie Grzywinski, director of science and regulatory relations for the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, an organization that in part certifies food service workers and provides food safety education, said that in her research she was unable to find another example of dishwashers being used to clean vegetables. Nevertheless, she said this violates several principals of safe food handling.
“Without us being there, we can’t say for sure what was going on,” she said.
Zane Taylor, a junior at the University said the disclosure about the procedure did not bother him because a serious problem would have been detected by students and faculty made ill by the food. He said he did not condone the behavior though.
“It’s obviously a bad solution to be washing potatoes in detergent, but if it’s that dangerous you shouldn’t even be washing your dishes in that,” he said. “How many students eat at the dorms and eat the potatoes? You eat at the dorms and sometimes you feel fine and sometimes you don’t. It’s not that hard (for that many people) to isolate what’s making you not feel well.”
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