ESPN finds ‘high-level’ health violations at U.S. Bank Stadium

Published 8:08 am Saturday, December 15, 2018

By Cody Nelson

MPR News/90.1

U.S. Bank Stadium, fresh off hosting the 2018 Super Bowl, might be getting some less-than-friendly attention following a new ESPN report.

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ESPN’s Outside the Lines investigated major sports venues across North America and found that 28 percent of the 111 outlets inspected had “high-level violations” from local health departments.

The “People’s Stadium” and home to the Vikings had an average of 1.08 high-level violations per health inspection. Different jurisdictions have different definitions for what constitutes a “high-level” violation, ESPN noted.

U.S. Bank Stadium was the 90th-cleanest stadium in the 107 ESPN ranked.

Here are some of the findings from ESPN’s analysis of U.S. Bank Stadium’s health inspection reports from January 2016 through January 2017.

One area didn’t have water all day, so workers couldn’t wash their hands.

“Inspection notes from Oct. 1, 2017, state that one area did not have water the entire day, indicating that employees were not washing their hands. The notes indicated that employees had asked their supervisors multiple times for water, but they never fixed the issue.”

Some cold food wasn’t kept cold enough

“The temperature in a walk-in cooler was 50 degrees, when it should have been 41 or below, on Sept. 11, 2017. Several items, including chicken and beef, were tossed out because they were too warm.”

Inspectors caught workers without proper food-safety attire

“Inspectors saw a worker add batter to rice with his bare hands in the commissary kitchen on the same day. Another employee was not wearing a hair net.”

Aramark, which manages the food and drink at U.S. Bank Stadium, maintains that food safety is a “top priority” for the company.

“In addition to working closely with local health departments, our commitment spans a comprehensive approach to training, briefing staff before every event, certified food safety coordinators on-site, regular and frequent audits and quality assurance assessments, and engaging independent auditors to evaluate our practices for an increased level of rigor. Any items noted during an inspection are quickly addressed and corrected,” Aramark said in a statement.

While relatively cleaner under ESPN’s violations vs. inspections methodology, the other major sporting venues in Minnesota weren’t entirely clean.

ESPN also examined the Xcel Energy Center, Target Field and the Target Center.

Check out ESPN’s full report at http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/25316231