Wall Street Journal, 7/27/01

As if you needed another reason not to eat airplane food.

Some of the country's biggest airlines and in-flight caterers have violated federal health regulations of food storage and sewage handling, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration records. So far this year, the agency has sent six "warning letters" about violations to carriers including Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Continental Airlines -- twice the number sent during the same period in 1997.

A Northwest airplane in San Francisco International Airport was storing chicken filets at 62 degrees, 17 degrees higher than regulations permit, FDA inspectors found in May. At Albuquerque International Airport in April, a Delta Air Lines lavatory service truck was leaking "waste water and/or sewage" onto the ground. That same month, the FDA found an AirTran Airways lavatory sewage tank wasn't capped, leading to an accumulation of sewage on the tarmac at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Despite spending millions of dollars to increase leg-room, open first-class lounges and install new in-flight entertainment systems, the airlines' cumulative record of FDA warnings hasn't improved. The violations at the major airlines are occurring even as the carriers face continuing heat over the quality of customer service.

"If frequent fliers actually read these letters, I think they'd be up in arms about the type of food quality that they're getting," says John Domenech, executive vice-president of the Internet company Netcompliance Inc., a Washington, D.C., seller of software to help companies comply with government regulations. It is planning to release a compilation of the letters Friday.

The situation isn't any better at airline caterers, rail and bus companies. Including them, the number of warning letters sent so far this year stands at 19, a slight increase over the 18 letters sent during the same period in 1997. Inspectors found cream cheese and turkey salads on Amtrak trains with potentially hazardous internal temperatures in an inspection in May. Amtrak says it has addressed the FDA's concerns.

At LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest in-flight catering company and a unit of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, of Germany, employees "were observed touching their mouth, forehead and nose and then continuing to work without washing hands or changing gloves," according to the report of an FDA inspection in May. LSG says the situation was immediately corrected. The companies cited say the violations were all promptly resolved. Some say they represent a tiny percentage of the hundreds of millions of meals they serve each year.

But public-health and consumer advocates say the violations represent a real threat. "The percentage of violations, if applied to the total number of meals served, would probably show that many thousands of meals a day are served that are not in compliance with government health standards," says Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project.

For some frequent travelers, the violations only confirm their worst fears. "I don't eat on airplanes -- period," said Jamie Kitman, a rock band manager. "It only adds insult to an already-injurious experience."

Doug Killian, a Northwest spokesman, said the airline took actions to correct the chicken-storage violation and doesn't view the situation as a recurring problem. "We feel we've got good measures in place to ensure quality food preparation," he said. Delta's leaking lavatory-service truck "was handled while the inspector was still on site," spokesman Russ Williams said. AirTran Airways spokesman Jim Brown calls the airline's sewage leak "a very isolated situation" that was fixed within 48 hours. Continental didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Food-temperature violations are viewed as serious because they can result in bacterial growth and contamination. In 1993, 47 passengers on a flight from North Carolina to Rhode Island ate the same meal and got sick, the CDC says. The culprit: a salad contaminated with E. coli.

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