Part of an ongoing series on ingredients served at U.S. Colleges and Universities

Information updated October 2024

Dartmouth College is feeding some of the best brains in the world, so let’s see if these elite students are being offered ideal nutrition for intense learning.

The menus and ingredient information can be found online at Dartmouth College Dining Web site; all data seen here was sourced from this Web site:

GRILLED CHEESE

The Grilled Cheese at Dartmouth has five ingredients banned at Whole Foods, six inclusions of Chemical Preservatives plus Sugar and other ingredients we would never use if we were making this at home from scratch such as Soybean Oil, Soy Lecithin and Monoglycerides. (Source for banned ingredients: Amazon Whole Foods Web site 10/24; Source for Recognized Preservatives: U.S. FDA 2024)

CHICKEN TENDER QUESO

This Chicken Tender Queso contains multiple ingredients Not In Kitchen.

There are 8 inclusions of ingredients banned at Whole Foods in this Dartmouth lunch dish including Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, multiple Chemical Preservatives, Bleached Flour and Anti-foaming Agent. 

TBHQ is what the Ingredient Inspector terms an ‘Acronym Ingredient’ which represents the Chemical Preservative, Tertiary (Tert) Butylhydroquinone.  Acronym Ingredients always represent complex man-made chemical creations, yet appear innocuous in their simple depiction.

ADDED SUGARS ABOUND: The majority of lunch offerings at Dartmouth contain Added Sugar. The Mozzarella Sticks contains five sources of Added Sugar.

SOMETHING ON THE SIDES: Below are three common side dishes available at Dartmouth >> French Fries, Pita Bread Chip and Tempura Fried Pickles. They all contain Added Sugar(s), Chemical Preservatives and numerous ingredients Not In Kitchen.

Q: Aside from Sugar and possibly Canola Oil, have any of the ingredients noted below ever been in your home kitchen?

PRESERVATIVES ARE PERVASIVE: In addition to numerous Added Sugars, there are multiple Chemical Preservatives available for Lunch at Dartmouth. 

In addition to the TBHQ, we see another Acronym Ingredient >> Calcium Disodium EDTA. EDTA stands for Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid, which is also a Chemical Preservative.

Q: How does Dartmouth expect their exceptional students to have maximum learning capabilities when they are being offered suboptimal food selections which do not enable exceptional brain health?

It seems the foods being offered for Lunch at Dartmouth are not a reflection of the considerable collective intelligence of Dartmouth’s faculty and alumni. Why?

See what’s on the menu at some other leading U.S. Colleges + Universities:

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