What’s in Your Dinner?

In my early high school years, I cooked pizzas and sandwiches for a local restaurant. It was not high quality by any means, but there were always two rules absolutely every employee had to follow. Wash your hands through the entire A-B-C’s song (roughly 25 seconds) every single time you left or returned to the kitchen, and always wear gloves when handling a customer’s dish. Apparently and unfortunately, many of our nation’s ball parks do not deem sanitation as necessary.

ESPN’s Paula Lavigne and Lindsay Rovegno recently reported a state-by-state list of vendor inspection results , and included in their report  are the results for all the professional sports’ stadiums in the United States (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL – For some reason soccer is not included, hm). Judging by other stadiums and parks such as Lebron James’ new home in Miami, the three Wisconsin sports’ areanas actually fared quite well. The Miami Heat’ American Airlines Arena,  reportedly found that 93% of their vendors had registered some kind of “critical violation.”

Amway Arena, home of the Orlando Magic, not only registered 75% of workers breaking health regulations, but the included excerpt claims, “At a location that sells fish, inspectors found potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food not consumed/sold within a week of opening/preparation.” Yum.

Wisconsin’s numbers are minuscule compared to some of the other surrounding states, but for someone who carries a mini bottle of sanitizer in his fanny pack (just kidding), it is quite alarming. I suppose I better insert a spoiler tag for those of you who would rather simply not know, but for those of you who do, below are results for Miller Park, Lambeau Field and the Bradley Center.

[ SPOILER! -- Proceed on an empty stomach ]

[ Full state-by-state list here -- Vendor Inspection Report  ]

Wisconsin

 
Bradley Center
Milwaukee Bucks
Vendors with critical violations: 23%
Inspection report excerpt:

A volunteer worker used bare hands to level ice in an ice bin. The inspector ordered the ice to be discarded.

Lambeau Field
Green Bay Packers
Vendors with critical violations: 18%
Inspection report excerpt:

Two locations were cited after inspectors found an employee who “did not wash hands after blowing nose or eating food prior to handling customer food or ice.”

Miller Park
Milwaukee Brewers
Vendors with critical violations: 33%
Inspection report excerpt:

Mold was growing in ice machines at six locataions.

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Tattle tails can be a major headache, and no one despises a fame hungry whistle-blower (See all 28 of Tiger Woods’ mistresses) more than myself, but I am glad someone made these reports public. It’s definitely not pleasant by any means, but in this case wouldn’t you rather be in the loop than out? Lambeau Field is an unmatched historic venue, Miller Park is a top 10 Major League Baseball park hands down, and the Bradley Center is an enjoyable night out to be sure. However, next time you are sipping a pint or mowing through a ball park sausage, you might want to check and make sure there isn’t a hidden surprise accidently included. On the plus side, at least we don’t have to attend games at the Washington D.C.Verizon Center (gulp). Sorry Wizard fans…

Tags: Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks