By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.Com
August 2, 2010
Cable TV sports network ESPN is best known for covering a late-season pennant race or following the latest Terrell Owens drama, but the sports network has just published an eye-opening report on food safety at North American sports venues.
The ESPN program "Outside The Lines" conducted a review of health department inspection reports for all 107 stadiums and arenas that hosted Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams in 2009. The review found 30 venues had at least one major health citation during the year.
For example, health inspectors found mold in ice machines at Miller Park in Milwaukee, a cockroach crawling over a soda dispenser at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh and food service employees ignoring the "wash your hands" signs at Ford Field in Detroit. Fans lining up to spend $7 for hot dog or $6 for a slice of pizza were clueless.
"It tells consumers that they should be very concerned about some of the food that they are eating and purchasing in a lot of these stadiums," Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), told ESPN.
Food has long been a key part of watching a sporting event. The song "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," references peanuts and Crackerjacks in its third line. Today, fans might be better off sticking to a food that comes in its own shell, or a candy snack that comes in a box or wrapper.
Stick with the peanuts
But stadium food vendors sell a lot more than peanuts and crackerjacks these days, and ESPN notes that might be part of the problem. Today's fans expect to chow down on a burger and fries, a rack of ribs, or even -- of all things -- a plate of sushi. Preparing that wide variety of food and keeping it fresh and sanitary until sold is a major challenge for vendors.
ESPN asked Dr. Robert Buchanan, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Food Safety and Security Systems, to review their findings.
"That number [the 30 venues with a majority of food establishments having critical violations], based on comparisons of the data I've been able to find on restaurants in general, is substantially higher than I would have expected," he told the network. "Certainly, if you have a high rate of facilities within a stadium coming up with critical deficiencies, that to me strikes of systemic errors in either management of the stadium or in the infrastructure of the stadium, and both of them need to be corrected."
Food safety rules, of course, are designed to prevent people from getting sick from bad food. And while the potential exists for a widespread foodborne illness outbreak from bad stadium food, it simply hasn't happened yet. However, it doesn't mean that bad food has never made anyone sick.
Some players and coaches, who often depend on a stadium food vendor for last minute nourishment, have reported getting sick from eating tainted stadium food. Perhaps the most celebrated case was last fall, when Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona got food poisoning before an American League playoff game in Anaheim, Calif,. Francona blamed his illness on the sushi he ordered and ate in the clubhouse just before the game.
