After watching a story on Outside The Lines on ESPN about stadium concessions cleanliness around the country, I wanted to see what the record would show about Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium’s eating establishments.
If you read the reports from all of the NFL, NBA and MLB stadiums featured in ESPN’s story, you instantly become cautious. The American Airlines Center, Home of the Dallas Mavericks, has reports of expired milk and brown lettuce. Cowboys Stadium and Rangers Ballpark saw violations ranging from improper hand washing to food that was kept at the wrong temperature. Two other nearby stadiums to Arkansas, the FedEx Forum and the Ford Center, were reported to be fairly safe and clean. But how would Arkansas’s largest sporting venue compare in food sanitation when 72,000 Hog fans pack the stands?
The answers that we found from the Arkansas Department of Health show that in the past five years the four permitted food establishments within the stadium have remained sanitary. The four permitted food vendors are AQ Chicken, Papa John’s Pizza, Chartwell’s Pushcarts, and Razorback Stadium- Sodexo.
During last season’s inspections, there were no violations reported with the Chartwell’s Pushcarts around the concourses of Razorback Stadium or the main kitchen inside the stadium, which is ran by Sodexo.
Even though those two establishments were not in violation last season, they do have some violations going farther back into the records. Sodexo did receive two critical violations in 2008. Those were for storing ice cups inside the ice cooler and not washing their hands while handing drinks and other non-food items.
In 2007, the Chartwell’s Pushcarts were given two critical violations for not having a hand-washing area on the pushcarts and no running water.
There were a few minor and one critical violation at the Papa John’s establishment in 2009. The critical violation was that the establishment did not have proper sanitation at the sink used for washing utensils for cooking. The inspector also reported that some employees were not wearing hairnets around the food prep area and there were no paper towels near the hand-washing sink.
Papa John’s Pizza was also written up in 2008 for two critical violations. First, for the employees not having lids and straws for their personal drinks and second, for not having soap at the hand-washing sink.
When inspecting AQ Chicken’s area last season, the inspector did not find any critical violations, but did report that the vent hood needed to be cleaned and employees needed to wear hairnets.
In 2008, AQ Chicken was cited for one critical violation. The employees were seen not washing their hands while on the food cooking line handling non-food items.
After reading reports of rat pellets and moldy chicken in and around stadium concession stands across the country, Razorback fans can be certain that the Arkansas Department of Health routinely inspects all of the food options at every stadium to keep Hog fans alive and healthy.