Delta spokesman Anthony Black said inflight service was already at a third of capacity, but it was unclear how many people had eaten the food. Medical experts consulted by the crew recommended a stopover in New York.
Emergency medical teams met Flight 136 at John F. Kennedy International Airport after it landed around 4 a.m. Wednesday to treat travelers. About a dozen people were evaluated, but no one was taken to the hospital, Delta said. The airline said the crew did not eat the food.
“Delta’s food safety team has instructed our suppliers to immediately isolate the product and launch a thorough investigation into the incident,” the airline said in a statement. “This is not the service Delta is known for and we sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay to their travels.”
On about 75 international flights Wednesday and Thursday, Delta “shifted to a pasta service” as part of its meal overhaul, Black said.
Airlines use meals prepared by outside suppliers; hot meals are prepared in advance and frozen or refrigerated before being reheated on the plane.
Black did not name the catering company responsible for meals on Wednesday’s flight, but said “several catering elements are under review.”
The service disruption comes amid a busy July 4 week, when Delta expected to carry nearly 6 million passengers. In an interview with CBS Mornings, CEO Ed Bastian said the airline’s teams were ready for the holiday.
Health experts say that food on planes, just like food on the ground, can become contaminated in a number of ways, including exposure to dirty water, improper handling or cooking, among other things. It may not be heated properly or left out in the open for too long. But while food poisoning on planes can happen, it’s not a very common problem.
If the travelers had accidentally eaten food contaminated with mold, there might not have been an incident, says Mark Gendreau, MD, chief medical officer of Beverly, Addison Gilbert and Anna Jaques Hospitals in Massachusetts.
Unless you’re consuming a “massive amount of mold,” he says, people with healthy, intact immune systems can tolerate eating it without too much trouble.
People can still experience nausea, vomiting and diarrhea within hours of becoming ill if they have symptoms. Although rare, symptoms can also appear a day or two later, including allergic reactions, rashes and, in even rarer cases, weakness, fatigue and difficulty breathing, Gendreau added.
Ali A. Khan, a gastroenterologist at Gastro Health in Fairfax, Virginia, said that for people who are immunocompromised, however, eating mold can be much more dangerous because the chances of it developing into a major fungal infection are greater.
You should be able to tell if your meal has been contaminated. Khan said signs of mold include unusual white or black spots, a softer-than-normal texture or bad odors. If you spot mold, throw out the entire meal rather than trying to cut off the moldy part, he said. It can be difficult to tell exactly how deep the mold and adjacent bacteria have actually penetrated.
