Kim Harms
News Editor
kharms3@jccc.edu
Every year the food court goes through routine inspections to make sure the college is providing a safe and sanitary food environment. The most recent inspection was conducted last April.
Jason Arnett, Manager of Food Court and Coffee Bar Operations, said the food court is inspected twice a year and the inspections are done at random.
“We get inspected twice a year, once by the city and once by the state,” Arnett said. “[The inspections] are done randomly. We have no idea [when the next inspection is], it is always a surprise.”
When a food inspection is conducted, there are several things an inspector looks for. Chuochun Lu, an employee for the food court, said sanitation, food-handling and cleanliness are the main elements inspected.
“They check for sanitization,” Lu said. “They also check how we preserve the food and how it’s cooked.”
The inspections are very thorough and every detail is looked at. Anything that the food court could possibly be doing wrong is noted.
“They look to make sure that we’re handling things in a safe fashion,” Arnett said. “They look for everything that could go wrong in a food service operation.”
Lu said proper protection is a major requirement for maintaining a sanitary food environment and avoiding a violation. Employees are held to high expectations when it comes to sanitation.
“We need to have protective wear, especially gloves,” Lu said. “Women need to have to their hair tied back as well.”
Food inspections are not graded on a letter grade or pass/fail basis. The inspections are graded with their own grading system. Arnett said their grading can be difficult to understand unless you see it for yourself.
“There is a kind of score and it’s an odd set up,” said Arnett. “They have two levels of deviation that indicate what your score is. There’s no way to explain it without looking at one.”
When a violation is found during an inspection, the violation is generally fixed immediately. Follow-up inspections may be done to check if a violation has been corrected. Arnett said the food court has not had a follow-up inspection since he has been at the college.
“[Violations] are usually fixed on the spot,” Arnett said. “We haven’t had a follow-up inspection from the city or the state in years, not since I’ve been here.”
The food court is located on floor 1.5 of COM. Their hours are Monday-Thursday 7 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Friday 7 a.m.-3 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Jason Arnett can be contacted at jarnett1@jccc.edu or 913-469-8500, ext. 4249.
Check out our graphic breaking down the food inspection sheet here.