Vendors at Denver’s major sports venues had a number of food-safety violations over the past year, but nothing that would constitute a dangerous threat of disease, officials say.
An ESPN report this week looked at health inspections at 107 of the country’s football, basketball, baseball and hockey stadiums and arenas. ESPN found that at least 60 percent of all vendors at Denver’s three major venues — Coors Field, Invesco Field at Mile High and Pepsi Center — were cited with at least one “critical” food-safety violation.
A Denver Post review of the inspections by the city’s Department of Environmental Health found the “critical” violations ranged from the innocuous — workers not washing hands immediately before donning sterile serving gloves — to the more serious, such as an insect similar to a fruit fly inside a bottle of cognac or on whiskey bottles.
In all, city inspectors in 2009 found more than 50 critical violations at the three venues.
Those Denver inspections encompass hundreds of vendor locations ranging from restaurants such as the Blue Sky Grille at the Pepsi Center to a taco stand at Invesco Field.
“It could be easily misconstrued,” said Bob McDonald, the city’s director of public-health inspection. “It would be a critical violation for food to be out of temperature for a short period of time and it’s documented as a violation, but it’s not an imminent public-health risk unless it’s much longer.”
Inspectors, McDonald said, insist that any violation, no matter how small, is corrected immediately. Otherwise, the vendor is closed down.
That hasn’t happened. And no complaint of a food-borne illness has been lodged against any of the venues in the 15 years he has run the program, McDonald said.
The companies that handle vending operations at the venues — Aramark at Coors and Pepsi Center, and Centerplate at Invesco Field — issued statements Tuesday that said any violations are corrected quickly and that food safety always comes first.
“Employees are trained, and operations are routinely inspected to ensure that they meet standards for safe operation,” said Bob Pascal of Centerplate. “Any deficiencies that are identified . . . are corrected, usually immediately in the presence of the inspector.”
The most common violation at Invesco Field, according to inspection reports, was the donning of sterile food-service gloves before hand-washing.
Other “critical” violations included the placement of dirty cooking utensils in sinks meant for hand-washing.
“Food safety is our top priority,” said David Freireich of Aramark. “We have rigorous employee training and quality-assurance processes.”
The worst violation at Coors Field — not all inspections were available on the city’s website, which went entirely electronic last July — was the refrigeration of cheese and sour cream at an improper temperature.
“It could be that a product is at 45 degrees instead of 41, which is a legal requirement,” McDonald said. “It’s sort of like driving at 59 miles per hour instead of 55. It’s still a violation, and you can be cited. But you need to have the context.”
Fans had mixed reactions to the news, with some saying they’d think twice about eating at one of the venues. Others, however, were unconcerned.
“All I worry about is the beer,” said Todd Anselmo of Denver. “As long as the beer is cold, I’m good.”
Staff writer Rita Wold contributed to this report.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
Some “critical” calls made at sports venues
Denver food-safety inspectors found more than 50 “critical” violations last year at the city’s three major sports venues. A few highlights:
COORS FIELD
•Concentration of sanitizer too strong
•Hand-washing facilities inaccessible because of items stored in the sink
•Cheese and sour cream stored in a refrigerator at 52 degrees instead of 41
INVESCO FIELD AT MILE HIGH
•Workers put on food-service gloves without washing hands first
•Open soda cans kept near food-preparation areas
•Lack of a portable hand-washing station
PEPSI CENTER
•Meat stored in a refrigerator at 44 degrees instead of 41
•Phorid flies found in a bottle of cognac and in portable vending carts
•Cooked meat not cooling quickly enough
Source: Denver Department of Environmental Health
