Airline Passengers at Higher Risk of Food Poisoning
All those jokes about bad airline food don’t seem so funny when you read a new report by USA Today. According to the report, Food and Drug Administration inspections have found poor sanitary conditions at some of the biggest airline catering companies in the industry. The conditions are so poor, that inspectors are warning of a higher risk of food poisoning in passengers who eat these meals.
The inspections were conducted at Gate Gourmet, LSG Sky Chefs, and Flying Food Group. Inspectors found a number of unsanitary and unsafe conditions at these facilities.
· The physical hygiene conditions were appalling, with mice, cockroaches and flies in the facilities.
· Staff members, who were in charge of preparing the food, had poor personal hygiene.
· Equipment used for food preparation was unclean.
· Staff members at some facilities, were using unsafe food handling and storage processes.
And these were just three in-flight catering companies!
According to food safety experts, the situation with in-flight catering companies has always been bad, and instead of conditions getting better, they seem to be getting progressively worse. These three catering companies together comprise a major chunk of the in-flight catering market. They supply meals to several major airlines, including American, Continental and US Airways. They operate a total of 91 kitchens that supply approximately 100 million in-flight meals every year.
The catering companies insist they maintain high quality control standards. The airlines say that they frequently check on the quality standards at these facilities, and require FDA inspection records. However, it’s clear to Atlanta injury lawyers, that none of these quality control methods are working as well as they were intentioned to. That’s bad news for the millions of airline passengers who eat these meals. Hopefully, this report will be a wake-up call for an overhaul of the hygiene conditions at these catering companies.