Bugs, mold on menu at K.C. stadiums

[Pitt Gorilla]

Video and pics at link.

https://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_...y-pro-stadiums

By Paula Lavigne | ESPN.com
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The food safety manager at Kansas City's Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums, home to the Royals and the Chiefs, told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that poor food handling and dirty conditions have routinely been putting fans' health at risk -- including during the World Series. In addition, a city health department inspection completed Nov. 3 found dozens of critical health code violations at the facilities, according to documents obtained by "Outside the Lines."

Among the concerns found at the stadiums by the manager: cockroaches in vending areas, mouse feces on the same tray as pizza dough, sinks where employees were supposed to wash their hands being blocked by boxes or trash, employees eating in food prep areas and trays of food headed for customers that measured at unsafe temperatures. The health department found several critical violations, including mold growth in ice machines, dirty pans and trays and excessive numbers of fruit flies.

"When we lose control over hygienic practices and we also combine that with poor temperature control -- that could be a catastrophe," said Jon Costa, the district food safety manager for Aramark, which runs the concessions at both venues and has food and beverage contracts with 30 professional sports teams. "That is a recipe for foodborne illness. ... It's very likely temperatures are abused every game. Every game."

Costa sent information about the food safety concerns to local media and ESPN last week, a step he said he took after months of trying to get Aramark senior management to address his concerns and reprimand employees who broke food handling and prep rules. He said he had no authority to reprimand employees, and he was powerless on site because the employees he would have been instructing did not report to him. After learning that Costa sent those details to the media, Aramark placed him on paid administrative leave last week for violating its media policy, Costa said.

Marc Bruno, chief operating officer of Aramark Sports and Entertainment, said last week that Costa's photographs and descriptions were "just allegations at this point," and the company has addressed problems that Costa has raised throughout his 2½ years with the company.

"It's completely contrary to everything that we have done in there," Bruno said. "Food safety is the top priority, No. 1 at Aramark and No. 1 in Kansas City and all our operations." He said both venues are routinely inspected by the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, which has awarded a number of concession stand food safety excellence awards at the stadiums in the past.

Tod MacKenzie, senior vice president of communications and public affairs for Aramark, also wrote a detailed response to "Outside the Lines."

"The unsubstantiated claims raised by a disgruntled employee are very troubling, as is his unknown motivation," MacKenzie said. "Especially disturbing is the fact that this individual is personally responsible and entrusted with managing food safety at the locations in question. ...

"The random collection of isolated and questionable photographs that the employee distributed represents selective snapshot 'moments-in-time' that without proper context can support any number of conclusions."

The Royals issued a statement, saying: "We take great pride in promoting an atmosphere at Kauffman Stadium that Royals fans of all ages can enjoy. The excitement and energy running through the stadium was on full display during the World Series and our partners, including Aramark, play an important role in creating those memories. Food and beverage is integral to the fan experience and Aramark has been a valued partner in delivering those services to fans. We all take food service, safety and quality very seriously."

The Chiefs also issued a statement: "We're continually looking for new ways to enhance the fan experience and, for the past four seasons, we have partnered with Aramark to transform and elevate our general concession areas. The food and beverage service and selections delivered by Aramark are important parts of the Arrowhead experience."

In July 2010, "Outside the Lines" conducted a comprehensive review of food safety at all 107 venues for professional football, hockey, baseball and basketball in North America. In that report, 62 percent of Kauffman's vendors had critical violations, and at Arrowhead, it was 56 percent. Aramark began its contracts with Kauffman in 2007 and started one with Arrowhead, for general concessions only, in 2010. Costa said his position was created as a result of the "Outside the Lines" report.

"Some of these practices are very habitual. And sometimes it's the same abuser," Costa said of the problems he witnessed.

Costa sent photos of food prep problems to Aramark and Royals officials, via emails, prior to the World Series. "Outside the Lines" verified those emails.

Costa also emailed his photos and complaint to the health department on Nov. 3, the day after the Chiefs played the Jets at Arrowhead, and the department sent inspectors within hours to examine concession stands at both venues. Even though there were no events at either facility that day and the stands were closed, inspectors found violations at 20 out of 26 stands, including 37 critical violations.

Health department division manager Naser Jouhari said the results were "shocking." He said his inspectors told him that it looked like Aramark workers "just flipped the switch off, and they walked out without doing any cleaning or removing any of the food items."

"The main concern is [inviting] all these insects and rodents to the concession stands so they [could] contaminate food service, food contact areas," he said.

Although no events are scheduled at Kauffman until March, the Chiefs have their next game at Arrowhead on Sunday. Bruno said Aramark has addressed and corrected all issues from the Nov. 3 health department inspections and has brought in a third-party food safety auditor. On Monday, health department inspectors re-inspected the 20 stands that had violations and reported that all of them had been corrected. Had they not been, the department could have shut down the noncompliant concession stands, issued a fine or done both.

"We've served three million or four million fans this summer in Kansas City at those two stadiums," Bruno said. "And the food is safe, the food is high quality, and there are really no issues."

Costa's photos also included shots of moldy hot dog buns, which he said were discarded but had been a recurring problem. He provided a copy of an email from May 5, 2014 from a Royals fan who complained about mold on a hot dog bun that the fan's child was about to eat.

Costa said managers have not been promoting food safety, especially among the actual food prep workers who handle the ingredients, as evidenced by a scene he described from the final game of the World Series on Oct. 29. The concession stands were running low on pizza dough, and a prep worker told him that she was left with a tray of dough that had expired Oct. 25.

"She says to me that she called our supplier and our supplier told her, 'Do not serve dough that is expired,'" Costa said. "However, our manager stepped in and said, 'You will sell the dough. You will sell the dough.'"

"Outside the Lines" heard two other accounts of the dough incident that backed up Costa's description and indicated that pizzas made with expired dough were sold to customers.

Even if the dough didn't pose a health hazard or sicken anyone, Costa said it set a bad precedent for workers.

"I think it says that, 'Hey, we can sell any substandard food that we want,'" he said.

Costa provided a copy of an email his supervisor in Kansas City sent Oct. 31 stating that the supervisor was concerned about the dough incident and that another manager that night did eventually instruct workers to stop selling the pizzas. When "Outside the Lines" asked Bruno about the incident last week, he said it was the first he'd heard of it.

"I continue to have confidence in our policies and procedures that would prevent something like this from being served," he said. "I was at Game 7. I actually did have pizza that night, and you know, there were no issues that we're aware of anywhere."

Health department inspection photographs
The City of Kansas City (Mo.) Health Department sent inspectors to Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums on Nov. 3, the day it had been alerted to food safety concerns by Costa. Even though there were no events at either facility that day and the concession stands were closed, inspectors found violations at 20 out of 26 stands, including 37 critical violations. The photos below were taken on Nov. 3. The facilities passed a re-inspection this week.

Producer Nicole Noren of ESPN's Enterprise/Investigative Unit contributed to this report.

[MMXcalibur]

This would never happen under Scott Pioli's iron fist.

[Pepe Silvia]

I had a cheeseburger for dinner, it was way better than the Kauffman burger.

[Jewish Rabbi]

Originally Posted by Fish

It sounds nasty, but people put way too much emotion into the cleanliness of their food. The human body is a pretty amazing machine that can handle much much more than what people stress themselves over. A little mold or mouse shit or cockroach footprints? Coming from many of the same people that let their dog kiss them on the face? Or perform oral sex? Do you have any idea how much bacteria is involved there?

Yeah it's not really that, it's the potential listeria outbreak that's waiting to kill anyone who hits up a certain stand.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

When your fans are mostly known for food they cook and eat in the parking lot, it's hard for me to get all that worked up over this.

Yeah, I just pigged out on knockwurst and potato salad I prepared on a grill that hasn't been cleaned since I purchased it during the Cark Peterson era in between my 27 trips to a porta-potty without hand washing facilities, but I'm a germaphobe as soon as I stroll through the turnstiles.

Thats your choice to not clean the cooking surface of your meal. You are making decisions for yourself and you are not trying to make a profit.

Cutting corners to pocket more money when your making Billions is anise. To endanger your customers health to pocket a few more sheckles is anise.

[Aries Walker]

It's anise? You can't possibly mean it's licorice-flavored, but I can't for the life of me figure out what word you meant to use there.

[Strongside]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

It's anise? You can't possibly mean it's licorice-flavored, but I can't for the life of me figure out what word you meant to use there.

Asinine, I'd say...

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by Strongside

Asinine, I'd say...

You're a real son of a birch, you know that?

[Iconic]

Originally Posted by Fish

I lay pretty strong odds that someone in this very thread, posted their dismay to this news, typing on their filthy hot bacteria farm of a phone, while sitting on the shitter.

mmmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmm
I sure do love me some fecal-oral pathogens.

[displacedinMN]

I work out there in concessions, and our stand isn't like that, but we are one of the fund raising volunteer groups...an NPO, or not for profit.

The stands that are NPO seem to be good overall, and they have been trying to get more and more people working the games from ours, I am assuming because of stuff like this.

The employees are all union, and I could see where some of the stuff could come up there. I haven't ever worked directly with one of their stands, but I see enough of them, and deal with them coming to our stand begging for things they ran out of, or trying to swipe things like our ice scoops because theirs was missing happens.

We have been inspected twice this season already, and passed both.

Same story when I worked at Target Center. Volunteer stands were ok, union stands were not. I got pulled to work in a union stand. Because I am a nice guy. The workers were rude. I stayed late to clean up and the supervisor and I talked about how some work gets done. By the time I got done, it was very clean. I did get a little thank you from Aramark, but not a big stipend.

About that time, Target Field was being built and Aramark applied for the contract. All of a sudden, Aramark had a renewed effort on health and food safety at Target Center. thermometers magically showed up and we were held to a higher standard that had not been done in two years.

At the end of their contract, Aramark was replaced with Delaware North and Target field was also awarded to Delaware. Many of the Aramark employees applied for jobs with DN and were not hired. (why would they) I was at Target Center for the first time in 4 years last night. Looks like they have done a nice job in upgrades.

Maybe they need to have their feet held to the fire in KC too.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Is there a Jack Stack at the stadium still? If so, does it have anything to do with this? I was thinking about eating there at the game tomorrow.

[tk13]

Update. Jon Costa, the whistleblower, was fired.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...ns-made-public

The food safety manager who went public last fall with allegations of unsafe food handling and pictures of bugs, mouse feces and moldy food at Kansas City's Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums has been fired.

Jon Costa shared with "Outside the Lines" a copy of a letter he said his former employer, Aramark, sent him on March 17 saying Costa was being fired "for cause." The letter outlines a number of reasons, the first of which is that he violated the company's media policy by taking his concerns public.

Costa came forward publicly with his concerns last November, just after World Series games at Kauffman Stadium, in an email to media and public health officials, including the local health department. He detailed allegations -- complete with photos -- of cockroaches in vending areas, mouse feces on the same tray as pizza dough, sinks where employees were supposed to wash their hands being blocked by boxes or trash, employees eating in food prep areas and trays of food headed for customers that measured at unsafe temperatures.

The city health department responded with an inspection of the Royals' and Chiefs' stadiums on Nov. 3 that found violations at 20 out of 26 stands, including 37 critical violations, including mold growth in ice machines, dirty pans and trays and excessive numbers of fruit flies. A subsequent inspection found those violations to be corrected.

Aramark declined to answer specific questions about Costa's firing but issued a statement Thursday noting that "We respect our employees' privacy and consider personnel matters confidential. We maintain that privacy even if an individual chooses to discuss their situation publicly."

--

An Aramark representative interviewed Costa on three separate occasions after the November publicity, during which Costa said he was asked questions about his employment, prior work history, the nature of his photos and other aspects of his allegations.

In December, Costa's attorney filed a retaliation complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has the authority to investigate complaints of retaliation against whistleblowers.

In its letter of termination, Aramark also said Costa "failed to take prompt action to address food safety issues, notwithstanding documented support from his managers and direction from them to do so" and to discipline employees who were violating food safety practices.

But Costa said he had tried to solve problems by addressing them on site and bringing them to the attention of managers who never supported his efforts. He said he did not supervise anyone and had neither the authority nor training to discipline fellow employees.

The letter detailing his firing also says that Costa hampered Aramark's relationship with the local health department and that he did not follow protocol in dealing with the department. Costa, who used to work for the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, denied those allegations. When "Outside the Lines" interviewed health department division manager Naser Jouhari in November, he said he knew Costa as a former employee and Aramark representative and that, "It's all been pleasant. We never had any major concerns."

Costa's attorney Ryan McClelland, who specializes in employment law, said he believes that Aramark fired Costa not for going to the media but for alerting public health officials of the violations.

"Jon, making a good faith reporting of food safety violations, is a protected activity for which he can't be subject to any adverse action," McClelland said.

McClelland said the firing was especially retaliatory in part because the company denied Costa ongoing medical coverage, which usually happens only in cases of "gross misconduct." Although Missouri doesn't have protections for whistleblowers in the private sector, McClelland said Costa's issue could still fall under state wrongful termination laws as well as a variety of federal statutes, including through OSHA. An OSHA official stated that the agency tries to complete its investigations within six months.

[Bugeater]

Fair or not, I don't see how you do that without knowing it may cost you your job.

[SPchief]

He gonna get paid

[allen_kcCard]

Telling the health department is not the same thing as showing up on Outside the Lines.

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by allen_kcCard

Telling the health department is not the same thing as showing up on Outside the Lines.

This. I think the problem is that he went public...