Airport Food May Be Hazardous To Your Health

Posted By elissa on Jan 6, 2010 | 2 comments

And I don’t mean from a nutritional perspective, either… A recent investigation by USA Today came up with some pretty disturbing findings.

Airport restaurants packed with holiday travelers have been cited in the past year for hundreds of food safety violations, local health department reports show.

A USA TODAY review of inspection records for nearly 800 restaurants at 10 airports found items such as tuna salad and turkey sandwiches stored at dangerously warm temperatures, raw meat contaminating ready-to-eat foods, rat droppings and kitchens lacking soap for workers to wash hands.

Serious violations, which can increase the risk of illness, are common. On the most recent inspections available online, 42% of 57 restaurants reviewed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had at least one “critical” violation. So did 77% of 35 restaurants reviewed at Reagan National Airport.

Urrrrgh – I’ve eaten at Sea-Tac on several occasions too, although only at one restaurant (Ivar’s), where my food was cooked to order.  But from now on, I think I’ll just stick to protein bars, nuts, jerky (which I can stuff in my purse) and commercial food products packaged outside the airport (like yogurt and cottage cheese) when I fly.  Not ideal, but going without meals for a few hours beats enduring a bout of food poisoning in a crowded plane.