WASHINGTON – A federal inspector on a routine visit to food-service facilities at Los Angeles International Airport in January found conditions that, she wrote, could compromise the safety of food meant for airline passengers.
Toilets where employees washed their hands were dirty. Machines used to control bacteria were not maintained adequately. And clutter in the food-storage area created a potential for pests, the inspector for the Food and Drug Administration wrote, according to a report to be issued Wednesday by Unite Here, a union representing airline food workers.
The Los Angeles facilities were one of several catering operations owned and operated by Flying Food Group, which prepares meals for some of the world's largest airlines. Inspectors over the past few years have found unsanitary conditions in several kitchens operated by the company.
In 2011, the company recalled food prepared at its facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia, after tests by the state Health Department found it was contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, older adults and others with weakened immune systems.
Last year, according to the report and inspection records, the company had to recall meals prepared for a British Airways flight from Miami.
Health experts said the report and past problems at vendor's facilities raised troubling questions about the safety of food served by the company, which prepares meals for 70 of the world's leading airlines including Air France, British Airways, China Southern Airlines and Etihad Airways.
"There is a real risk of illness and injury to tens of thousands of airline passengers on a daily basis," said Roy Costa, a public health consultant and former Florida state food inspector who writes extensively about airline food safety.
Paul Hall, the vice president for food safety and quality at Flying Food Group, acknowledged the findings of the FDA inspections cited in the union report, but added that the problems at the facilities had been fixed. The company also said that the report from the union was part of an effort to organise workers at the company.
"While we strive for perfection in all we do, FFG acknowledges that at times we fall short of that goal," he said in an email. "However, once issue(s) are identified, a root cause analysis is conducted and actions taken based on that analysis. If repeat problems occur, we keep looking for solutions until we find the effective one."
Mr Hall said workers were encouraged to bring problems to the attention of their managers. But workers at the Los Angeles facility said in interviews that managers rarely listened to their complaints.
They said that dishwashing machines regularly broke down, leaving workers to wash plates and other dishes by hand, often without detergent; that managers had ordered workers to change the dates indicating when food was prepared; and that they had seen insects and rodents in areas where food was being prepared.
Flying Food disputes these accusations. In a statement the company said that it had received no complaints from employees about problems with food safety or unsanitary conditions at its Los Angeles facilities. It said that an outside auditor hired by several airlines, including Air France, had recently inspected the facilities and given them high marks for quality and food safety.
"We believe this is simply another example of labour union Unite Here making false allegations in a desperate attempt to disrupt our business and organise our employees through misinformation and falsehoods," the company said in a statement.
The union denies that its scrutiny of Flying Food is an attempt to disrupt its business.
The airline industry and catering companies say the problems found in FDA reports are minuscule given the millions of meals produced for airline passengers each day. They also say there have been no reported instances of widespread food-borne illness related to airline meals.
Jean Dible, an airline food safety expert in Georgia, said that was because there was a lack of data on the number of people who get sick from eating airplane food.
"No one keeps track of this so it's hard to know how big the problem is," Ms Dible said.
Flying Food is not the only airline catering company where the FDA has found potential food safety problems. The agency's records show that last year, inspections of facilities operated by LSG Sky Chefs, a catering company owned by the German airline Lufthansa, turned up potential "food-borne biological hazards."
Four of the inspections occurred at facilities serving John F Kennedy Airport in New York. The company also received a warning letter from the FDA for mislabelling meals because it failed to properly list potential allergens like milk and nuts.
David Margulies, a spokesman for the company, said LSG Sky Chefs was holding meetings with the FDA to "outline an agreed upon industry labelling standard and implementation process."
"The quality and safety of the food we produce are among our company's highest priorities," Mr Margulies said in an email. "LSG Sky Chefs works diligently to meet or exceed all local, state and federal agency regulations."