After outcry, Columbia University blames technical error for ‘Oct. 7’ sauce on menu
Columbia blames a design template error for listing 'October 7th' sauce on the menu on Wednesday and calls it a 'mistake,' after social media users decry the Ivy League
Columbia University in New York has apologized after a campus dining hall’s pasta station offered the options on Wednesday of marinara sauce, turkey bolognese, garlic oil and “October 7th Blush Sauce,” sparking anger on social media.
A university spokesperson insisted that the date was not a reference to the onslaught by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were abducted.
“This was an unfortunate mistake,” wrote Vicki Dunn, assistant vice president of Columbia Dining, in a statement published by the university’s newspaper, the Columbia Spectator.
Dunn wrote that the blush sauce, which, like its name, is pink because of the mix of cream and tomatoes, had been scheduled for the menu that day.
The date, Dunn explained, was then left in by mistake after information was copied into the menu’s design template.
Dining staff removed the signs “as soon as the mistake was identified,” she told the university paper.
Simone Saidmehr, a New York correspondent for Israel’s Haaretz daily, posted a photo of the menu on her X account. Critics took to social media to accuse the university of intentionally referencing the attacks. One user asked if the dining hall offered “‘Oct. 6 Ranch Sauce’ or something similar? Do they put the date and sauce of the day every day?”
“You have to purposely place that text all the way down there,” wrote another sceptic on X. “This isn’t like the date was on the top line and pushed down a line on accident.”
On the menu at Columbia University’s dining hall today: October 7th Blush Sauce pic.twitter.com/LowwIH1DYP
— Simone Saidmehr (@saidmehr_simone) October 7, 2026
Others came to the university’s defense.
“You guys have to relax. Chances are an immigrant from South America who works for the Columbia dining hall is the one who obliviously made that sign. Not everything is about the Israel-Palestine conflict,” posted one account.
Separately, anti-Zionist protesters gathered outside the university’s campus at a rally on Wednesday, chanting “Globalize the intifada,” “No peace on stolen land,” and “Every fascist state will fall,” to the beat of a drum.
Columbia has been a focal point of protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, which began after the October 7 attacks. The war has killed more than 74,200 people in the Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The toll does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, however.
Israel has vehemently denied that it is committing genocide, and says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities, while stressing that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.