Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

The results are in, and if you attended a professional sporting event in the state of Wisconsin in 2009, you probably consumed something from a vendor in violation of health requirements. Here’s how our venues scored:

Bradley Center
Milwaukee Bucks
Vendors with critical violations: 23%
Inspection report excerpt: A volunteer worker used bare hands to level ice in an ice bin. The inspector ordered the ice to be discarded.

Lambeau Field
Green Bay Packers
Vendors with critical violations: 18%
Inspection report excerpt: Two locations were cited after inspectors found an employee who "did not wash hands after blowing nose or eating food prior to handling customer food or ice."

Miller Park
Milwaukee Brewers
Vendors with critical violations: 33%
Inspection report excerpt: Mold was growing in ice machines at six locations.

Obviously, 0% is the goal, and certainly what I’d most like to read, but Wisconsin’s destinations were far from the most heinous offenders. See the entire list HERE.

The question I have surrounds a frame of reference. How dirty is clean? Or perhaps I should phrase it: how dirty is clean enough? Are we to feel good about the 18% at Lambeau because…well…it’s below 20%?

I know I’m a germaphobe, but the thought of 1/3 of my Miller Park vendors scooping mold into my Coke makes me want to hurl. If that’s growing in the ice machines, what’s budding in the Cactus League Nachos bins?