I’m on my way to the International Association for Food Protection annual meeting in Anaheim; it’s kind of band camp for the food safety nerds. I’m sure that at least once in the next 48 hours, last week’s ESPN food-safety-sucks-at-some-stadiums will come up. Demonstrating how mainstream food safety can be, sports talk radio got into the discussion with Mike and Mike in the morning (one of my favorites) carrying a couple of segments on Wednesday (the conversation took a weird turn into a do-you-really-want-to-know about your current partner’s sexual history).

The food safety story on Outside The Lines has caused a ripple effect with journos from pretty well every town that hosts a major sports team reported on the local angle. The response to the stories is following a predictable cycle: expose, local digging, canned responses from the operators.

The Detroit Free Press ran some of the statements, including the below from the food service operator at the Palace of Auburn Hills:

“We are committed to food safety in our operations, and we have a solid food-safety and sanitation program in place to provide the proper employee training, safety procedures and food-handling techniques required to meet or exceed our standards, as well as those of the local health department. We anticipate the health department’s regular visits as another set of eyes to ensure our operations are delivering consistent, safe experiences for our fans.”