LAX-Departing Flights May Not Serve Food for a Week in Wake of Listeria Outbreak

If you’re flying out of or through LAX in the next week or so, listen up: The identification of listeria at an LAX catering facility has prompted American Airlines to halt food services “for all LAX departures starting immediately and lasting approximately a week.” The catering facility at the center of all this provides catering for flights operated by American as well as Delta and a half dozen international airlines, though so far only American appears to have made a public decision of this kind.

For its part, AA “is working on several solutions to the problem, including offering snacks at certain gates, finding alternative catering and, in cases where catering is not up to American’s standard, providing vouchers that can be used on future flights,” American spokeswoman Katie Cody said today. The president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, meanwhile, wrote in a statement that LAX passengers have no reason to worry about contracting listeria. (For more on listeria and listeriosis, which the listeria monocytogenes bacterium brings about, see this.)

What passengers should worry about, however, is the possibility of not having access to catered food on flights departing LAX for the next week. I suggest contacting your airline to find out for certain—and of course, bringing plenty of snacks.

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