Food Service Provider at A&M Hit With Health Department Violations

Four food service locations on the A&M campus, operated by the university’s third party provider, were closed parts of Thursday and Friday.

All were reopened following reinspections by the Brazos County Health Department.

According to the health department’s Facebook page, the first floor food court area of the Memorial Student Center, Sbisa World Cuisine, the Sbisa kitchen and dish room, and Einstein Bagels adjacent to Sbisa were closed for a mandatory 24 hours.

All are operated by the Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services division of Compass Group, which is in the second year of a five year, $125 million dollar contract.

A university spokeswoman says “steps are in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” No details were given about those steps, and if Chartwells/Compass will be penalized for having closed locations due to the health department violations.

Screen shots from the Brazos County Health Department Facebook page:

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Here’s the statement sent by Chartwells following Thursday’s closure:

“The health and safety of our guests is always Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services’ highest priority. Upon learning the circumstances today, Chartwells took immediate action to eradicate issues and is confident that both dining venues will re-open tomorrow. Chartwells is working closely with the University in support of both corrective efforts as well proactive measures to ensure that such instances do not occur again. Chartwells has extensive procedures in place regarding dining facility sanitation that are in full compliance with food safety and sanitation laws and uses rigorous third-party external audits to ensure the highest industry quality assurance standards are met. Since beginning our contract with the University, all dining operations have been up to code on all health inspections.”

Here’s the statement sent by A&M, also on Thursday following the closure:

“We have become acutely aware and obviously concerned that two campus eating facilities operated by Chartwells — including the first level food court area of the Memorial Student Center — have been closed temporarily by Brazos County Health Department officials following a routine inspection. Einstein Brother’s Bagels, adjacent to Sbisa Dining Center, also was closed for a mandatory 24-hour period to ensure violations are corrected. All other dining facilities are open for business.

­While all dining operations are under the contractual management and oversight of Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, a private vendor, we are fully committed to ensure that the issues identified by inspectors are effectively addressed and corrected as soon as possible.

We are working closely with the Chatwells team to address this situation.”

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