Incident at Dewhurst Dining Hall

Dear Students,

As many of you are aware on the evening of Sunday, March 26th there was an incident in Dewhurst Dining Hall that resulted in a dead mouse being found in the spinach container at the stir-fry line. We believe that this was the result of a student prank, and that the mouse was discovered moments after it was placed. Bishop’s is working very closely with our partner and food service provider, Sodexo, as we both take the quality and safety of our food very seriously. Sodexo has very strict food safety policies and protocols in place, as well as pest control policies and protocols. Sodexo has a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points or HACCP program which is an internationally recognized systemic approach to ensuring food safety at all points through food production – from delivery of food to the serving of food to customers. The HACCP program has been evaluated to ISO22000 and is compliant with all facets of this rigid international standard. Managing food safety is our highest priority and we have a number of processes within the HACCP system to continuously monitor the quality of the system:

• Certified food safety training for all supervisors of employees who have food handling responsibilities
• Internal food safety training for all employees who have food handling responsibilities
• Scheduled monitoring of critical control points in the food preparation chain with documented corrective action whenever quality of food safety is found to be outside the control points set through our HACCP program
• Daily and monthly scheduled internal inspections, which monitor the food preparation facility with a documented corrective action process for identifying and correcting items that are identified to be out of scope
• A centralized call in process for all food related complaints which are managed through a team of food safety experts – all complaints are investigated and where there is a problem identified, corrective actions are implemented
• A third party audit program which is independent of Sodexo and routinely checks our business’s compliance against the HACCP program that has been developed

In addition to internal systems and processes, the municipality also frequently monitors our food establishments through health inspections and detailed documented reports that are reviewed to ensure that all issues identified are resolved in a timely manner.

• The last third party audit of the food service operation at Bishop’s was conducted on February 6th, 2017 and Sodexo received 92% compliance against our HACCP program.
• Bishop’s was inspected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Quebec (MAPAQ) on September 22nd, 2016 where we were found to be in compliance with all provincial regulations.
• Cameron is the company contracted to deal will pest control on campus, including in the dining hall; they conduct regular inspections of all food services venues. Cameron was at Bishops last Friday, March, 24th, 2017 and found no evidence of any concerns related to pest contamination.

We understand that this situation might have caused students to feel worried about the safety of the food in the dining hall and want to re-assure you that we are taking every measure possible to ensure the quality and safety of the food. Although all information suggests that this isolated incident is the result of a student prank, Bishop’s University Administration and Sodexo are conducting a thorough investigation to rule out any other possible causes.

If you have any questions, concerns or information about this incident please direct them to Deb Langford, Director of Residence and Conference Services at 819-822-9600 extension 2244 (dlangfor@ubishsops.ca) or Carson Brooks Manager of Security at 819-822-9711 (cbrooks@ubishsop.ca).

Sincerely,

Jackie Bailey
Dean of Student Affairs