The latest menu item at Lenoir? Apparently, worms and undercooked chicken

A tweet posted by first-year Ken Davis last Thursday that showed what appeared to be worms in fruit served at Top of Lenoir has prompted other students to speak out about ill-prepared foods at UNC’s dining halls.

In an email, Davis said he got the picture from a group chat. The person who took the original picture declined to speak to The Daily Tar Heel.

Since it was posted on Jan. 31, Davis' tweet has been retweeted more than 100 times and has received almost 300 likes.

In response to the worm incident, general manager for Carolina Dining Services, Scott Weir, said CDS is working with their supplier to make sure there are no future problems with their fruit.

"In the meantime, we have discontinued use of their product and have added additional handling procedures for all produce (fresh and frozen) to improve our ability to prevent similar situations in the future," Weir said in a statement.

In the days since it was posted, Davis' tweet has caused students who have experienced other food incidents at the dining hall to tell their stories.

In a reply to Davis’ tweet, first-year Ben Dod tweeted a picture of a chicken nugget that appears to be undercooked.

Dod said he was shocked when he ate what he said was a raw chicken nugget during late night at Chase Dining Hall on Jan. 15.

“When I bit into it and looked down at it — thank God I did look down and see that it was raw — I kind of held my mouth open for a little bit and went and spit it out,” he said.

This was the first time Dod had experienced this, and he said he understands that sometimes the dining hall employees will make mistakes.

“I find for the most part things aren’t like that,” Dod said. “It’s actually kind of understandable when they are because you’re preparing such a large volume of food day in and day out so things will slip by inevitably every once in a while.”

After tweeting about the chicken nuggets on his personal Twitter, CDS messaged him directly on Jan. 16 and offered him a voucher for a free meal.

“Thank you for letting us know,” said CDS in the direct message. “We have gotten our Executive Chef involved and are working to make sure this does not happen in the future.”

Dod said, overall, he was satisfied because CDS heard his complaint.

"CDS received one report of what appeared to be an undercooked chicken nugget earlier this year and have added additional steps in our handling procedures to ensure that will not happen again," Weir said in a statement.

Two days after Dod’s incident with the chicken nuggets, sophomore Garrett Douglas said he was also served undercooked chicken at Late Night, this time at Lenoir Hall.  

Douglas said he was grabbing some food at Lenoir After Dark on Jan. 17 before finishing homework when he cut into chicken that looked pink and raw.

“I took a bite out of one, and it felt just really soft,” he said. “I bit into it really easy and I looked at it and it was completely raw chicken and I was like, 'Woah.'”

When he cut open the other pieces of chicken on his plate, he said they were all raw.

“It’s just really concerning how we pay so much money for this, and they can give us raw chicken for dinner,” Douglas said.

Concerned that other students might be eating the raw chicken without noticing, Douglas notified a manager that night who he said spoke to the chef about the problem.

Weir also said during the week of Jan. 28, both Chase and Top of Lenoir passed their quarterly state health inspection with a 100, the highest possible grade.

Still, Douglas said his chicken experience, along with the worms from Davis’ tweet, have caused him to reconsider eating at the dining halls.

“It definitely has affected me,” he said. “I’m pretty limited on where I can go eat during the day so I’ll probably have to do it again, but I’ll just be aware of what I’m eating.”

@MarcoQuiroz10

university@dailytarheel.com