According to a report on stadium food safety from ESPN.com, one-third of the food vendors at Seattle’s Qwest Field have cited by health department officials for critical violations, specifically, for having inadequate hand washing facilities. Yuck.
That ranks Qwest Field a middling 19th in food safety out of 32 NFL stadiums (tied with Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field), but dead last in the NFC West.
FYI, only 16% of Safeco Field vendors have been cited for critical violations, either for inadequate hand washing facilities or (double yuck) not using the hand washing facilities they have.
Yum.
“would you like that burger with the special sauce?”
At one point, some of these food vendors were using non-profit groups to man the counters for fundraising purposes. This meant that a lot of teenagers from church youth groups, softball teams, etc. were working there. Although they were all supposed to have food handling permits, I know that some of them did not. That means they missed the mandatory training class.
could have the washington national guard handle food vending. oh wait, they are in afghanistan. nevermind.
gary locke’s gonna save new orleans tourism:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-.....es_na.html
Have you ever been to “mandatory” food handlers class? You do not have to pass anything but a TB test! The test is open book and you still don’t have to pass it! It is a joke.
That’s nothing! AOL News says cash register receipts are a health hazard. But the good news is that Starbucks receipts are safe. (Whole Foods and Safeway receipts are not.)
http://www.aolnews.com/health/.....h/19569406
The corporate food industry is selling Americans crap that is very bad for your health. Virtually any processed food is bad for you. It’s laced with high fructose corn syrup, sodium, and sundry chemicals. High fructose corn syrup is ubiquitous; food processers use it to cater to Americans’ sweet tooth, and it’s found in nearly every processed food product. As a result of eating the corporate shit sold in grocery stores, Americans are obese, have high cholesterol, and can look forward to early admittance to the cemetery of their choice. But there is a way out of this death trap: Eat like a rabbit! Live on organic veggies and you’ll be okay. Just make sure you wash it before eating, to get all the chemical fallout from air pollution off it. Rabbits can live to be 100 years old. Pop Rabbit, my daddy, grew up on a farm in the countryside where they didn’t have air pollution and didn’t use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and he’s almost 100 years old and still hopping! I’m gonna live to be 100, too! Mr. Cynical? He doesn’t have a prayer. He’s gonna get HIV from fucking his goats or whacking off on raw liver purchased from Safeway, if he doesn’t already have it. And if HIV doesn’t kill him, the chemical shit in the Safeway store receipts will!
@5
You had to take a TB test at a food handlers class? Seems odd considering that it takes a few days to see the results of a TB test and there’s nothing on any of the county websites about having to pass a TB test to get your permit.
Pierce county, about 20 years ago, you took the class, got the TB shot under the skin, and returned like 2 or 3 days later (forget exact time frame) and the look at the results and then issued the handlers card. I cannot speak if that is still the procedure.
I always appreciate that CA restaurants have to display a letter grade, representing the score they’ve received from food examiners. I think that kind of public information creates a strong incentive for obsessive adherence to the rules.
@9
It’s not!
You might want to use up to date data in your arguments. Easy enough to prove that the food hander classes are still a joke & mostly designed to push people though and to cover the rears of our local counties and fast food chains.
@10
Kitsap County used to publish the results of their inspections in the Bremerton paper. I don’t know if they still do.
I stand corrected, you no longer apparently need the TB test, just looked it up. So it is even easier! Of coarse the price has taken a significant escalation!
I will say this though, they are getting far and few in between but I know of a few greasy spoon restaurants that most of King County would not get caught dead in that will serve up some of the best food known to man! One of my all time favorites was The Arches in Spanaway who served up the Bunch Burger. Red Robin did not have anything on that! Unfortunately… like many landmarks, it went by the way of the wrecking ball about 3 years ago.
Back in the day I passed the food handlers test without any pretraining. The answers to the questions were pretty much common sense hygene.
That said given the high price of concessions at both ballparks you’d think they’d do better. Becuase of the prices I generally get something to eat before the game and have maybe one or two beers during the game.
I always assumed I got sick because I drank too much.
I’m going to use Goldy’s post as yet another reason why I can continue to ignore anything that goes on in a dome or stadium.
Interesting article.. thanks much!
The next question is this: who operates the concessions for Qwest Field? Regardless of the names of the stands, most stadia have their concessions run by a single company, and all concessions-stand workers are employees of that company. Regardless of whoever runs the stands, they’re in deep shit.
Sarge @ 16
If only, right?
The last time I went to an Ms game was when the Yankees were in town, a few weeks ago. It was a last minute decision to go to the game and tickets were limited. We ended up on the 300 level. I’m not familiar with the food vendors there, but gravitated toward a Mexican one out of instinct. I can eat most anything, and have eaten plenty of questionable food in Mexico without consequence. I could not, however, finish the burrito or enchilada or whatever it was I’d overpaid for. Hell, the cheese wasn’t even melted. You pay $10 or whatever it was for that shit, and you’d at least like it to be warm if you’re headed toward food poisoning.
How much training should someone need to know that they should not
1) pick their nose and then handle the food
2) go to the bathroom and fail to wash their hands after
3)handle money with gloves on and then handle food.
But then again, any food festival, fair or “bite of” is certainly full of people who aren’t going to bother going to the hand washing stations and they certainly aren’t going to waste that onion that fell on the road on which their food cart is parked.
So…I have no more confidence in stadium food.
@14 Screw Pierce County! As long as Beth’s Cafe across from Green Lake Park is still in business you don’t need any other greasy spoon.
I’m just glad we don’t have Sonics food to worry about as well….
Want some e-Coli with your burger?
I hope someone talks to people awarded the concessions, investigative reporter style. There’s a story there. Those people are sharecroppers in a rigged system. The concessions take all the risk, do all the work, and the operator keeps all the profits.
Without naming names, I know someone who had a concession at Qwest Field. I believe Aramark was the operator at the time. (cite)
The operator sells the concession all the product (buns, cups, napkins, syrup, etc). Lost or damaged product is the concession’s problem. The operator will always screw up the count, in their own favor.
The concession’s cut? 5 cents per drink.
The operator provides the labor the concession can hire. Work release types. No training. Different people each time. Very dodgy. Lock up everything in sight. Try to keep them from stealing money, product, etc. Concession gets charged an hourly rate. Who knows what the operator pays the labor.
Etc.