Horrifying Health Violations Found at Airline Caterers

Maybe the reason that airline food tastes so bad is because it’s full of bugs, bacteria, and mold. ABC News’ 20/20 recently obtained lists of airline food caterers’ health violation records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the results weren’t good.

In a period of about four years, the FDA counted over 1,500 health violations for airlines and their outside caterers. LSG Sky Chefs, for example, (a caterer that provides food to a number of different airlines) was cited after inspectors found their food facilities to be “infested with ants crawling over discarded food, flies both dead and alive—and roaches all over.”

Another company, Gate Gourmet, reportedly had facilities crawling with “roaches, gnats (too numerous to count), unrefrigerated food, utensils on dirty racks, and more.”

Gate Gourmet responded to 20/20’s report by stating, “None of the FDA’s observations…indicated a threat to the health of the traveling public.”

The FDA told 20/20 that “significant” problems were found in the airline food industry at a much higher rate than in other companies that the FDA inspects, and that they repeatedly found the same problems (“dirty cooking areas, old or moldy products and employees not washing their hands”) at numerous airline catering companies.

Do you eat airplane meals when they’re on offer? Tell us why or why not in the comments!