Delta cancels meal service on more than 200 flights over food safety issue
10/14: CBS Mornings Plus
Passengers on more than 200 Delta Air Lines flights out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport were denied meal service over the weekend after the airline on Friday shut down its Detroit meal service facility.
The closure came after the airline was notified of a “food safety issue” following a routine Food and Drug Administration inspection of the facility, Delta said.
“During a recent inspection at a DTW [Detroit Metro Airport] kitchen, Delta’s catering partner was notified of a food safety issue within the facility. Delta and its catering partner immediately shut down hot food production and subsequently suspended all activity from the facility,” the airline said in a statement to CBS News.
Delta said it is now changing how prepares both hot and cold food in order to restore meal service to flights.
“Hot food and other onboard provisioning will be managed from other facilities,” Delta said, adding that “we will continue to take necessary precautions to ensure food safety.”
The FDA did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
On a July flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, Delta served passengers moldy chicken meals that sickened several customers, forcing the flight to make an emergency landing in New York.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
