Vendors Get Low Marks For Food Safety
The food vendors at Cowboys Stadium and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington are getting a bad review from a national sports network. Arlington health code violations were reviewed by ESPN which reports that more than 70 percent of the vendors at Cowboys Stadium had at least one major violation in 2009. The figure was somewhat lower, a little more than 60 percent, at the Ballpark where the Rangers play. ESPN says it recently checked health department inspection reports from more than 100 stadiums used by teams in the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball. At Rangers Ballpark, one pizza vendor received a dozen critical violations, mostly for improper food temperatures and for not preventing possible contamination. And its inaugural season, Cowboys Stadium had what ESPN calls a relatively high percentage of critical violations, including several for inadequate hand-washing facilities. At one food stand, the hot dogs were 71 degrees, just a little more than half the required holding temperature of 135 degrees.
