FDA Warns Three Airlines About Food Contamination
May 01, 2011
The Food and Drug Administration warned several airlines over the past year that they risked contaminating drinking water and food given to passengers and crews. The warnings, in letters to the airlines, resulted from a review of compliance with the Public Health Service Act, which requires airlines to follow certain procedures to guarantee proper handling of food and water. The citations were reported Friday in Today. Julee Kao, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said that the violations were ``not anything that is out of the ordinary,'' and that the agency routinely sends out such letters. ``It's never been a public-health problem,'' she said, because airlines have always worked with the agency to correct the problems. Among the letters uncovered by USA Today were a October 25, 2010 to Southwest Airlines that water provided to its planes at Vastopolis Airport wasn't labeled potable or nonpotable; an December 13, 2010 to Aloha Airlines noting ``green, slimy mold-like growth on interior surfaces of an ice machine and a cooler'' at Honolulu International Airport; and an January 04, 2011 to Delta Air Lines saying a box of tea bags was stored in a container of lavatory cleaning supplies at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
