Black slime among food inspection violations found at Wrigley Field

September 12 2011
Staff report Sporting News

"The Friendly Confines" don't sound so friendly after a recent Chicago health department finding. 

WBBM-TV Chicago reporter Pam Zekman reports nine of the 35 concession stands at Wrigley Field faced critical violations after inspectors found things such as black slime in an ice machine, food that wasn't prepared properly and other food safety and handling violations. 

Zekman reports that the city's health department had conducted inspections when games weren't played at Wrigley Field and other ballparks and arenas. Now they do inspections on event days. The results were pretty gross at a few spots. 

A total of 20 critical violations were found at nine booths, three which were shut down. City inspection results resulted in more than 24 pounds of hot dogs, sausages and hamburgers being thrown out from five different concession areas. 

“It’s extremely important because it is while the concession stand is working and serving customers that all the rules about food safety, food handling, are even more important,” food safety expert Kantha Shelke told Zekman. 

The Italian Hot Spot failed inspection for improper hand-washing and for not keeping Italian sausages hot enough. The Cub House is where the black slime was found in an ice machine. 

Most of the violations cited in the inspections appeared to be fixed, but when Shelke and Zekman did a follow-up visit to Wrigley, they noted that a cashier "was using bare hands to handle money and then ice intermittently,” Shelke said to Zekman. “Money is loaded with germs so that was a problem.”