How safe is school cafeteria food? Dateline follows inspectors to track critical violations advertisement | ad infoDateline NbcBy Chris HansenDateline NBC updated 11/8/2004 10:07:38 AM ET yShareyPrintyFont: yyIt was a story that opened some eyes and turned some stomachs, a Dateline investigation into the food being served to millions of children in America's school cafeterias. Last spring, we took our cameras into some of the nation's largest school systems to check the safety oflunchroom meals. What we found in some schools was less than appetizing -- a number ofcritical safety violations. So this fall, we brought our cameras back. What did we find? When America's 53 million students marched into school this year, the cafeterias that feed them once again started serving the burgers, hot pockets and chicken wings that fuel the learning day.
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cooked off site. One of those schools that gets its food from a large central kitchens is Rosa
Parks Middle School, the second school we visited. The inspector found the turkey and
burritos, both cooked off site, were well below the required 140 degrees to kill harmful
bacteria. The school did get new heating ovens this summer, but they still had not been
installed weeks after school started.
In the end, the Health Department determined the food was safe enough to be served within
a four hour period, and whatever was left over had to be immediately thrown out. It was a
crisis averted, but still a critical violation.
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These old Detroit schools buildings also create other problems. At one of six we visited, the
gymnasium was converted into a lunch room. Here, the inspector found it impossible for
cafeteria workers to practice good hygiene. Workers must have easy access to soap and hot water to thoroughly wash their hands. Here again, the school was cited for a critical
violation. The inspector ordered the kitchen, one of two in the school, closed. Within days of
our visit a sink was installed in the school.
R obert Brown: "We're not gonna be satisfied, we're not gonna be content, until we have
everything done the right way, every single day."
Robert Brown who runs food services for the city says Detroit has spent $10 million
renovating old kitchens, installing new equipment, things like ovens and sinks. Two days
after our visit to Rosa Parks Middle, the ovens were finally hooked up.Hansen: "If these things can be corrected so quickly after our visit, then why weren't they
corrected before?"
Brown: "When you're dealing with a district that has the number of old buildings it has,
unfortunately, you have to accommodate. Those are a lot of challenges."
Our travels also took us South to Charlotte, N.C. At Berryhill Elementary, a Charlotte health
inspector discovered yesterday's macaroni and cheese was still caked on today's dishes.
Apparently, the dishwasher didn't do its job, a critical violation because left over food can
carry bacteria. At a third school, food was being kept at \ proper temperatures, dishes clean, but flies were everywhere, especially on the food service line where children lined up to get
lunch, and feasting on a piece of sweet potato pie.
Prof. Berg: "That's not all that fly was doing on that pie. They're probably the most
hazardous, in the sense of actually what they give."
Prof. Berg: "Where do flies stay? They stay over garbage. They're attracted to feces. That's
what they eat."
Hansen: "Again, unappetizing, but can it really make a kid sick?"
Prof. Berg: "That absolutely can make a kid sick."
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Charlotte school officials said these violations were an exception, but declined to go on
camera. However, in a statement they wrote that they train their cafeteria staff to keep them
"informed and aware of the high expectations for our child nutrition program."
After visiting these schools, we wondered about those cities Dateline visited last school year,
cities where inspections turned out poorly. Surely they must be doing better now. Or are
they?
When school bells rang this fall, Dateline returned to three cities we had visited last spring.Back then, we followed health inspectors who found serious violations in their schools. We
wanted to see if the schools report cards for health inspections would improve.
In one Phoenix school last March, tuna salad wasn't cold enough. It¶s supposed to be 40
degrees or below to prevent the growth of bacteria. Of the six schools we visited this fall,
inspectors only found one example of food being kept at the wrong temperature. But in our
most recent visit, there were other violations that disturbed inspector Suzie Sid -- like the
huge hole in the wall, an invitation for mice to stop by, have a bite and spread germs. We
showed our tape to David Ludwig, of Maricopa County's health department.Hansen: "Stuart Little could have walked through there."
David Ludwig: "That looked like a pretty big hole."
Hansen: "Now there's no one who's going to argue that it's okay to have rodent feces in a
kitchen area. But what is the real danger in terms of people getting sick?"
Ludwig: "It's regarding things like salmonella or other things that the rodent might carry
and pass on."
Kathy Getz runs food services for Phoenix elementary schools which, like all school districts,
faces an enormously complicated task. How to safely feed thousands of kids and make sureevery cafeteria worker gets it right. in the end she says it comes down to priorities.
Hansen: "Does it make you angry to see that in one of your kitchens?
Kathy Getz: "What makes me angry is fighting the battle for just a few education dollars to
Hansen: "How quickly does bacteria grow, bacteria that could make a kid sick at 78
degrees?"
Prof. Berg: "It grows really, really quickly. 78 degrees, 110 degrees, these are optimum
temperatures for bacteria. Not for us."
Cold pizza may be a staple around college dorms, but health officials say it could pose a
danger for a young child if not kept at 140 degrees to kill bacteria. At 60 degrees the pizza
was 80 degrees too cold.
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Prof. Berg: "It is that cheese. It's almost like a Petri dish with bacterial growth."
At McGavock High, inspectors saw something a lot scarier than cold pizza -- shards of glass
mixed in with fruit in a cooler. Apparently, the light shield, the metal cover that goes over
the glass dome shield, fell.Jerry R owland, Health Director: "I can't remember the last time that I saw an
inspection where there was glass inside a food in a school cafeteria or in a restaurant."
Inspectors also found a fifty pound bag of USDA-donated flour in a storage room infested
with bugs. Jay Nelson is the head of food services for Nashville schools.
Hansen: "Don't the people look around and say, this needs to be cleaned. This has bugs.
This is rotten. This is at the wrong temperature. Before kids come in to eat in these rooms?
Jay Nelson: "Chris, I would have fully expected that happens. But as we can see it doesn't."
Hansen: "How can you guarantee that the next time we come down here, we won't seesome of these very same things?"
Nelson: "Chris I'd be a fool to guarantee you that you're not going to see some of the very
same things. What I want to see is our total scores of all the schools improving, and
continually improving."
So did we just catch these schools on a bad day -- or a typical one? It seems in many cases,
records show that around the country what we saw was not the exception, but more the rule.
Dateline's visits to schools with health inspectors are just a snapshot in which a lot can go
right or wrong in a school cafeteria. To be fair, seven out of the 31 schools we went to had nocritical violations. But we wanted to know if, over time, schools had made the honor roll or
flunked their health inspections.
To get a better picture, we asked the cities we visited to send us health inspection reports for
school cafeterias during the past two years. These are the findings based on the reports they
sent us. In Charlotte, N.C., where our cameras found dirty dishes, and flies in one kitchen.
Inspectors found at least one critical violation 26 percent of the time when they inspected a
school.
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In Detroit, 60 percent of the time, inspectors found at least one critical violation when they
inspected a school. And in Oklahoma City, inspectors found critical violations 64 percent of
the time.
In the three cities we re-visited, we looked at inspection reports since the start of school a
few months ago. In Phoenix, inspectors found critical violations 46 percent of the time in
the Phoenix elementary school district.
Nashville inspectors found critical violations 67 percent of the time so far this school year.
After our visit, Nashville's school superintendent wrote Dateline saying starting
immediately, the health department will inspect problem schools four times a year insteadof just two.
In Washington, inspectors have found at least one critical violation 84 percent of the time
since school started. School officials promise that will improve.
As we did last school year, we showed the results of our investigation to Illinois Senator Dick
Durbin, who has pushed for national health standards in America¶s school cafeterias.
Hansen: "Your legislation's stuck in committee. You could argue that nothing has changed
much from one school year to another."
Sen. Durbin: "It's a sad reality, but I'm sure it's true, and your videotape proves it. The sadreality is that innocent kids have their health and often their lives at stake."
Senator Durbin did succeed in getting one part of his legislation passed. From now on,
states will have to report the findings of local school health inspections to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. The USDA will then monitor how well schools are doing and