In addition to cramped quarters and the risk of viral contamination, hundreds of Grand Princess cruise passengers under quarantine at Travis Air Base were subjected to “substandard” meals of limp salad, “processed cheese sludge” and moldy fruit, according to passengers who shared their experiences with The Chronicle and over a series of withering Yelp reviews.

Quarantined for weeks, first on the cruise ship itself and most recently at Travis Air Force Base, passengers faced anxious days in isolation spent waiting for potential coronavirus diagnoses. The meals they received from a foodservice provider contracted by the U.S. government provided little comfort.

The largest batch of passengers began to be released from quarantine on Monday while others remain on the base, including Gina Pallotta of Modesto.

“The thing that broke the camel’s back was when I had a salad that had a dead bug in it,” said Pallotta, 61, who also described being served moldy fruit and bread that crumbled when she picked it up.

Things didn’t start on a bad foot. Craig Wright, 58, a minister from Turlock, said that as his group disembarked from the cruise ship two weeks ago, they were grateful to be handed hearty turkey sandwiches, chips, apples and bottles of water as they headed to the Air Force base. But then they got the sandwiches again and again and again for 10 days in a row, with each iteration declining in quality over time.

And Pallotta says the group initially received forms from the company to specify their dietary restrictions. “But then they never came to pick them up,” she said. Her husband, a diabetic, couldn’t eat the sweetened foods like processed fruit juice, cookies and flavored yogurt they were provided with almost every meal. Many of the ship’s passengers are seniors with medical conditions, she noted, and she was concerned their dietary needs also weren’t being met.

“We understand that in terms of food, it’s difficult to feed that number of people,” said Pallotta, a psychologist who was quarantined at the base with her husband until Tuesday. She recounted days of the same meals, over and over again, and, even more damning, the actually inedible food like the “horrific” lettuce.

Meals were distributed by military staff, but passengers didn’t know who was actually making their food. Then someone spotted the name of a Sacramento catering company, Hannibal’s Catering, on delivery trucks late last week. Trying to reach out to the company, more often than not, was a source of frustration for the passengers. “I called the catering company’s customer service line to complain,” said Wright. “I said, ‘We’ve had turkey sandwiches every day for lunch the past eight days.’ And the lady on the phone said, ‘Well, tomorrow you’re having ham.’” After that, Wright penned his Yelp review; he said others followed suit after their own experiences of trying to talk directly to the company.

Hannibal’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an email, a spokeswoman from Travis Air Force Base said she could not confirm the name of the catering company because the base only provided lodging, while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was in charge of all other logistics, including food.

“The food started out ‘OK’ and then went downhill with few exceptions,” wrote Suzanne S. of Los Gatos. Breakfast and lunch were uniformly terrible, according to her. “Dinners vary—I actually liked the teriyaki chicken with sesame topped rice and some of the pasta dishes—but most of the others are barely acceptable.”

On March 20, Mike N. of Modesto chronicled the meals on the Yelp page: “Breakfast usually consists of a under cooked hard boiled egg (I think) which is cracked open more times than not, a bagel that smells like old worn socks and un-fresh moldy fruit, kids yogurt cup and bottle of water. Every lunch has processed turkey meat (and I mean EVERY lunch), stale bread (either pita or sliced), wilted lettuce, some sort of orange cheese with spots, more un-fresh fruit and a cellophane wrapped cookie broke into 20 pieces.”

The Grand Princess and its 3,500 passengers first spent several days off the coast of San Francisco in early March after officials realized they were potentially exposed to the coronavirus. The largest contingent of those passengers was then sent to Travis Air Force Base for quarantine, where most have stayed for the past two weeks.

Due to strict quarantine measures, the majority of the group had no access to grocery stores or nearby restaurants, though the base facilitated additional snack offerings from emergency aid groups in response to overwhelming complaints about the food. For the most part, the food provided at the base was it. “If we could have Grubhubbed our way out of the food they gave us, everyone would have done it,” said Wright.

“The food has been horrible, the service has been horrible and it has added to a general (air) of depression shared by so many of us against our wills,” he wrote on March 21. “Quarantine is supposed to protect society from the possibility that we are carrying a bug, it is not suppose (sic) to dehumanize us.”

“I’ve heard people say, you’re entitled; you just want fancy cruise food,” Pallotta said. “Look, we just expect there to be food that isn’t moldy, will not have bugs in it, is an adequate quantity and will address people’s health concerns. It’s not just about whether or not we like the food. This impacts people’s health.”

Wright said that after the Yelp campaign, the food did get better: Hamburgers were delivered for dinner actually warm to the touch, with condiments like ketchup and black pepper. But he said that for the passengers, that was too little too late. And for him as well: Now safely ensconced at home in Turlock, he’s digging into chicken korma and naan from Punjab Express for dinner.

Note: This story was updated with an interview from an additional Grand Princess passenger.

Soleil Ho is The San Francisco Chronicle’s restaurant critic. Email: soleil@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hooleil