Students who eat a grilled cheese sandwich on wheat bread at Nelson Dining Hall can go online to learn that they are putting away 25.3 grams of fat, 386 calories and 26.2 grams of carbohydrates.
Students who dine at West 82 in Baker University Center don't have that option.
Nutritional information for all five dining halls at Ohio University is available on Dining Services' Web site, http://www.facilities.ohiou.edu/food. Although Dining Services is working to make such information available for West 82, the process is not complete.
It wasn't an afterthought
but we just haven't gotten it done yet said Emily Howard, marketing manager for Housing and Food Service.
Food that is served for immediate consumption and ready-to-eat food that is not for immediate consumption but is prepared primarily on site is exempt from nutrition labeling, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Web site, www.fda.gov.
The food at West 82 is not healthier than the food in the dining halls, and all the venues use trans fat-free oil, Howard said.
There is no timeline for the lengthy process of putting nutritional facts online, Howard said, adding that photographs of the menu items have to be included.
Another difference between West 82 and the dining halls is the method of food preparation, but this difference could become less dramatic over time.
Shively Dining Hall has already begun preparing smaller batches of food at a time and making food more often - he said.
These techniques are easier for cooks and allow for better-tasting food, Howard said.
Junior Ashley Arquilla eats at West 82 three times a week and said that the food served there is fresher than in the dining halls.
You can see it being made in front of you as opposed to just appearing on a plate
she said.
Eventually, all dining halls will use such techniques, but the overhaul could take at least two years, Rapposelli said.
It's a big animal to make changes on
he said.
Differences in equipment also affect the outcome of the food, Rapposelli said. For example, hamburgers in the dining halls are cooked on flattop griddles and the hamburgers served at McGuffey's Grill are cooked on a charbroiler.
Space constraints, not cost issues, account for the different equipment used, Rapposelli said.
Although the ingredients used by the venues are similar, the ways they are served vary.
In the dining halls, pork is roasted, but in West 82, it can be braised, seasoned and shredded to be served in a Mexican style, Rapposelli said.
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Bethany Furkin
