Area Sports Arena food safety– how does Cincinnati stack up?

by julie on July 27, 2010

Eeep, Cincinnati isn’t doing so well, but we’re doing a lot better than a lot of other cities when it comes to arena food safety.

Interesting article from ESPN– it gives the food safety results for various arenas across the continent.

Who’s tops?

Whether you’re a White Sox or a Cubs fan, both had 0% of their vendors in violation– but they also don’t inspect while people are handling food.  The New England Patriots’ stadium had no violations (and no caveats about it being empty when they inspected, either).

The worst?  Verizon Center in DC, with 100% of its vendors having critical violations.  Florida didn’t fare so well either, with many of their arenas with 75% or more, including the home of the Marlins, where I saw a game last year (and I’m glad I stuck with beer).  Apparently an employee anonymously reported insects being blended into the mixed frozen drinks.  Yuck!

Cincinnati?

Great American Ballpark: 40% of its vendors with violations, including scraping food debris into the garbage with a spatula, then using the same spatula to cook.

Paul Brown Stadium: 31% in violation, including keeping hot dogs at too low a temperature.

Read the rest of the article– it’s an absolutely fascinating study of food service across the country.

  • http://californiatraveler.blogspot.com/ Suz

    Well, I know that Cincinnati uses volunteers to staff the food service areas. It’s a fund raiser for a lot of local organizations. Wonder if the other sports facilities use employees…that might have something to do with it.

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  • http://cincinnaticocktails.com Craig Hochscheid

    OK that definitely makes me NOT want to go to the ballpark and have a hot dog, not to mention what’s actually in those hot dogs…….

  • H.T. Katt

    @ Suz – Yes, there are some volunteers who act as hosts. But food prep? All salaried people. What’s most distressing is that we’re having to read about this at ESPN.com rather than in a report from the city’s health department. What have THEY been in all of this? Making inspections or not?

    • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com julie

      The stats that ESPN got were from the city’s health department– which are public record. They’re the ones who made the inspections and issued the violations.

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