sports Archives

Late summer and early fall are great times to go to a ball game. If you’re planning a trip to the ballpark, you may want to do some research before you decide to grab a bite to eat during the game.

Taste preferences aside, the main issue seems to be food handling within sports venues. UCLA Professor and board member of the Academy of Food Law & Policy Michael Roberts says, “The real risk, it seems to me at the ballpark, is the handling of food. That’s where you’ve got handlers cooking the food, handing it out, managing refrigeration and heating.” Roberts indicates local level authorities– county inspectors, for instance– are key to ensuring quality and safety measures are followed by those handling the food.

Measures are in place, of course, such as the requirement in every state for foodservice workers to wash their hands after using a restroom. However, a fire-safety law requiring doors to open inward rather than outward often results in recontamination when those who have just washed their hands have to pull a door handle to exit the restroom. With more businesses moving away from disposable paper towels (which could be used to open the door), extra precautions should be taken before the workers handle food after using the restroom. One common sense move is to ensure hands are washed in the food-handling area, even if hands were recently washed in the restroom, before handling food.

If baseball is your thing, Sports Illustrated has created a list of 2017 MLB Ballpark Food Safety Rankings.

Whatever your favorite sports event happens to be, if you get food to eat at the ballpark, be sure to wash YOUR hands before you eat!

To help your local foodhandlers brush up on proper, effective hand washing techniques, we recommend Brevis Glitterbug products, including GlitterBug Potion Disclosing Lotion, GlitterBug Hand and Nail Scrub Brush, and the GlitterBug Handwash Instruction Manual.