Bob CollinsHere’s a little video company for your lunch today. Food courts can make you sick. A Today Show reporter finds more than 60-percent of the vendors in the food court at the Mall of America have had violations since 2009.
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The MOA response was well hidden on the Today Show web site:
Statement from Mall of America spokesperson Dan Jasper:
“Our goal at Mall of America is to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all of our guests. With more than 40 million visitors a year enjoying our more than 500 retail stores and 60 restaurants, we recognize that exceeding our own expectations is not always easy. However, it is a challenge we have embraced for our 18 years of operation, and a challenge we fully expect our tenants to embrace along with us. Mall of America restaurants are inspected regularly by the City of Bloomington and held to the highest standards. The inspection process serves a vital role — to protect the health of all of us. While Mall of America management is not involved in the inspection process, we take such violation notifications very seriously and work with tenants to make sure the problem is corrected. All violations cited in the NBC report were addressed promptly by our tenants. The City has an inspection process to follow up on violations cited.
“That said, we take several steps to ensure a continued safe food environment, including: Our tenants take prompt action when notified of any violations or issues. We have instituted a texting campaign that will allow guests to quickly and easily share any concerns they have regarding food safety or cleanliness issues; texts will be monitored during all operational hours, with responses to the guest, as well as the tenant. We contract with a well respected professional firm to identify and resolve any pest issues. The City of Bloomington gives awards each year for outstanding food safety. Several of our tenants have received this award and as landlords we sponsor this award and encourage all of our restaurants to participant. Mall of America has always taken the safety of our guests seriously, and we will continue to do so. We remain committed to responding quickly to any issue whether we discover them, are notified by the City or by a guest. We do everything within our power to resolve all issues promptly.”
