Delta has stopped serving hot meals out of Detroit. Aviation watchdog JonNYC confirms what I expected, that the issue is listeria.
While Delta downplays the significance, suggesting a ‘food safety issue’ was discovered during an inspection, reportedly the crew of a Detroit – Amsterdam flight got sick suggesting the explanation from the airline is misleading even if technically accurate.
None of this confirmed by me, but FWIW pic.twitter.com/BT53OMLyyV
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 14, 2024
In the meantime, Delta is catering out of other cities (for instance, double catering flights to Detroit and using the second half for the flight back) and catering room temperature items in place of hot meals. Here’s some Panera on board, which is probably an improvement over many of Delta’s domestic first class meals.
In 2019, Air France economy and premium economy tuna sandwiches got passengers sick thanks to listeria.
Two years earlier, American Airlines and others found themselves without catering at LAX when listeria was discovered at a Gate Gourmet facility. In that case listeria wasn’t found on any surfaces that come into contact with food, only in the floor drains, and no one reported getting sick.
Still, meal services was limited as other caterers like Flying Food Group worked to pick up some of the slack. It took a month to clear and verify that the listeria was gone, and a month after that Gate Gourmet (which isn’t the Delta caterer in Detroit) returned to catering the bulk of its customers.
United Airlines facilities have been affected by listeria in the past, as well.
No One Ever checks food workers to verify they are washing their hands with hot water and soap .
Airline catering , restaurants , school cafeterias … all the same .
However , perhaps they will possibly hire the illegals who have no experience with sanitation ?
I have never gotten sick from airplane food or airport food. I thank my lucky stars. Maybe airlines that have problems could add a snacks only option for meals that consists of food such as nuts and chips.
Flew Dallas to Detroit on Sunday. It was catered in Detroit. So it must have been before they shut things down. Didn’t have enough food, drinks or snacks. No snacks at all. Drinks were economy canned wines, not the first-class wines. Hot meals were loaded but wholly match what was listed as pre-order options. It was a disaster. I was told by the flight attendant that Dallas flights are always round-trip catered in Detroit.
Premium Sickness from Delta.
FYI, AI bots from Russia have been found to leave a space before punctuation. An odd and easily noticeable tell-tale.
Alert: I check. But then again, I’m a food safety auditor by trade, so it’s part of my job to check that they’re washing hands and wearing gloves. And I also check for sanitation training. I spent a year and a half running sanitation crews, and training was taken seriously.
Gary: The environment is monitored because that’s where salmonella and listeria bacteria live. It can get into the food from the environment by airborne contamination. This is why every food manufacturing facility requires what’s called an environmental monitoring program. It’s taken very seriously. Food contact surfaces are rarely monitored under the programs for one reason: All product made on that production line is required to be retained until results come back. So you don’t get your meal in First if it’s done. And if they do find a positive result in Zone 1, then it’s a Class I recall.
Caesar salad in DFW Terminal D Thanksgiving noon 2023, few other places open, dressing was close to a killer. Resulted in a coma and 4 days in ICU. I now bring my food.
Happened in Detroit, you say?
My wife is a DL FA – I’m not stating that their facilities are that filthy because I have no first hand proof of it, but the DTW crews routinely have issues with catering. They’re chronically late and frequently incorrectly catered.
If they have that approach to their biggest customer at DTW, I really do wonder about their commitment to safety
I flew Delta on Sunday from DTW to RSW. Flight crew made several announcements about inadequate catering.
“Now, it is true that one of the flight crew has been taken ill…slightly ill. But the other two pilots are just fine and at the controls flying the plane. The weather in Chicago is clear as a bell, and there’s no reason that we won’t land on schedule…safe and sound and free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.”
Easy answer – be like me – never eat airplane food. Ever. Not worth the calories. Even in international first class on real airlines (read: not US based).
Nothing Like Premium Bloody Stool!
I just got the email teaser for The New Delta Interior Design (WTF? Why launch on 757s that should already be made into beer cans?!>) and it features a blood red stripe on all the seat cushions. In honor of the Delta Official Internal Parasite– Listeria!
“Premium” Listeria.
Don’t worry, Ed will insist it’s not his fault and credit your account with 10,000 SkyMiles…
On Sunday, October 13th, I was on American Airlines flight 2332 from Tampa to Philadelphia in first class. American Airlines did not serve our lunch meals to prevent listeria infections linked to unsanitary Detroit food catering companies. After a surprise Food and Drug Administration inspection, the FDA shut down the food preparation catering companies due to unsanitary kitchen conditions. Kitchen shutdowns affected both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Upon landing, some hungry passengers expecting an advertised meal service were upset they paid over $800 more for an American Airlines first-class ticket. But there was good news. On landing, passengers could wait in line to request a $12.00 food coupon to replace their missing first-class passenger lunch meal. Air-sickness bags were available at every seat in both first-class and economy cabins as a passenger comfort benefit.
For more information about why you do not want to get a listeria infection after consuming an airline meal, you can visit:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1438422110000615?via%3Dihub
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493144/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/listeria-infection/symptoms-causes/syc-20355269
@Captain Freedom
5000 SkyPesos
That’s the max these days. They strand you on the floor at ATL for a week and you get 5000 SkyPesos.
It’s so damn insulting that they are so bad, while claiming to be so good.
Premium listeria
Vindicating my long-held practice of never eating on an airplane, and very rarely at airports.
Next up, Delta partners with a Gastro doctor for free colonoscopy’s seeing as you’ve already started the prep from eating their premium foods out of DTW.
Thank you for sharing additional information. I became violently ill within hours of flying DTW to MIA late last month after being served a FC meal. Based upon other media outlets reporting Delta had not received any customer reports of illness, I made sure to send my report to Ed and Alison yesterday. Still waiting for a response.
@Dana Since your illness occurred that quickly, it’s probably not listeria, which typically take a few days to develop symptoms. That’s not to say it wasn’t something you ate on the flight. But with most bacterial food poisonings, it’s probably something you ate 2-4 days ago, which does makes the report lack of customer complaints less authoritative. As for your report made now for last month, it probably won’t be associated with this incident.
If Panera hadn’t eliminated their Asian Chicken Sesame Salad with wontons, that would be great for a flight…
Listeria? More like DIARRHEA. Everywhere.
Diarrhea Delta can’t maintain cleanliness when its passengers, FAs, and pilots are crapping all over the plane and leaving the lavatories unusable.
Thanks, Diarrhea Delta!