ESPN’s OTL Details Food-Safety Violations at Each Pro Sports Venue

ESPN’s Outside the Lines has published a report on each North American pro sports venue (including the Portland Trail Blazers’ Moda Center) based on food-safety inspections done by local health departments. OTL reviewed inspections from 2016 and 2017 in their report:

ESPN’s Outside the Lines reviewed and collected more than 16,000 food-safety inspection reports from health departments that monitor the 111 professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey facilities across North America. The review of routine inspection reports from 2016 and 2017 found that at about 28 percent of the venues, half or more of the food service outlets incurred a high-level violation -- one that poses a potential threat for foodborne illness.

OTL has provided a review for each venue. Here are some of the violations found at the Blazers’ Moda Center:

FOOD TOO WARM

Inspectors found food in cold drawers at 46 to 52 degrees, when it should have been held at 41 degrees or less. That was one of three higher-level and four lower-level violations at one location on March 31, 2016.

JEWELRY WORN

Fry cooks were wearing watches while working at a concession stand on Jan. 31, 2017. That’s a violation of rules prohibiting jewelry except for plain rings such as wedding bands.

RAW FOOD STORAGE

A pan of raw fish fillets was stored over ready-to-eat foods on Oct. 26, 2016, in a commissary, a potential for contamination.

The Moda Center is 38th-best out of the venus based on the number of violations found.

You can read more about the report from OTL here and here.