Most students who live on campus can relate to having a meal plan for dining in the residence halls.

This year was my first year having a meal plan in my three years of college. My first week of school I was happy to see all the selections I could choose from to eat on campus. Soon I began to get sick and stomach pains right after eating, I thought it was just me, but my roommates would get bad stomachaches as well.

I slowly began to pick up things the workers would do, like using the same gloves for different food items, food looking old and reused, and changes on how food tasted; one day it would be good, the next it would be nasty.

Some may say I am picky, but I know that pizza usually has a tint and does not look white like the cheese is not fully melted. This definitely affects how pizza tastes.

I wanted to know if the food I am eating is healthy enough to ingest. I spoke with Ken Whitney, interim director of Dining, who explained to me the dining areas do reuse food and must follow the Food Safety Guidelines.

“Food has a specific time period to go from the holding temperature to another temperature, to another time period to go down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the cooling period,” Whitney said.

This cooling period is a seven-hour process, required so there is not any unwanted bacteria growth on the food, allowing the food to be reused.

Since the food is already being catered, it has been cooked then frozen, now being reheated and goes through a repeated cycle of cooling and reheating, if this would be considered healthy.

I spoke with Amy McClaren, a graduate teaching assistant for Recreation Services/Housing and Dining, about this as well.

“It all falls into food safety, nutritionally there isn’t much of a difference in quality,” McClaren said.

I don’t understand how this would be so, when McClaren herself stated food will lose a few nutrients due to being reheated.

So if the food is reheated or cooled several times, it will lose some nutrients. McClaren was unable to state which nutrients would be lost.

Whitney also said that when food is delivered from one of the schools’ several catering companies, they can use the item up to three meal periods, but can only be used within two days. Things like sea food cannot be served several times.

“Each food group has different regulations as to how it is treated as a left over, desserts can be served the next day, hamburger and taco meat can be served the next day,” Whitney said.

Now I am a strong believer in leftover food, but even I have my limits. I understand why complementary items like lettuce, tomatoes and pickles are left out, but the thought of them sitting out in the stale air of a residence hall, being groped at by students who have God-knows-what, is unnerving.

To their credit, Whitney said Dining will not serve food they feel should not be served. But that pizza looks a little funny to me, and these fries are a little cold.