Live Oak — The next time you bite into a nice juicy hamburger, hot dog, sausage dog, chicken sandwich or nachos you might want to take a look around at the facilities.

ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” reviewed health department inspections for food and beverages outlets at all NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL teams in 2009.

At 30 of the venues (28 percent) more than half of the concession stands or restaurants had been cited for at least one critical or major health violation, Such violations pose a risk for foodborne illnesses that can make someone sick or, in extreme cases, cause death.

While there hasn’t been a documented mass outbreak of illness at a professional stadium, fans, players and coaches have said they have fallen ill from food, including Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who blamed bad sushi in the clubhouse for a bout of food poisoning he had before a playoff game in Anaheim last fall.         

According to the findings, inspectors found no violations at US Cellular Field or Wrigley Field, where the Chicago White Sox and Cubs play, or at the United Center, where the Bulls and Blackhawks play.

A map in the story shows the USA outlined and results shown based on a percentage of violations at each stadium. The chart breaks down the stadiums with no violations, 1-25 percent, 25-50 percent 50-75 percent and 75-100 percent.      

So how did Florida stadiums fare? Not too well.

At Tropicana Field (home of the Rays), every one of the 47 food outlets were cited for critical violations, including food residue in a cooler, toxic chemicals stored too close to food preparation areas, slime in the ice machines and thermometers not readily visible to measure the temperature of hot foods.

A worker at a Rays game commented there so much volume going through at one time that it’s hard to do the necessary things to keep everything cleaned. Sometime you sacrifice the cleanliness for expediting the service.  

Another fast food worker at what is now called Sun Life Stadium (Dolphins/Marlins) told inspectors that small insects were mixed into frozen alcoholic beverages at a stand where workers hadn’t cleaned equipment.

Amercian Airlines (Heat) rated 93 percent, Sun Life 93 percent, Amway (Magic) 75 percent, Tropicana 100 percent, St. Pete Times Forum (Lightning) 88 percent, Raymond James (Bucs) 84 percent , Bank Atlantic (Panthers) 67 percent and EverBank (Jaguars) 77 percent.

Amway was hit for not getting rid of meat quick enough after opening it, the St Pete Times Forum was observed washing dirty dishes and then putting up clean dishes with out washing their hands. Raymond James was cited for not cooking the chicken tenders at a required  185 degrees and EverBank was cited for holding temperatures below 135 which causes potential bacteria growth.

So the next time you reach for a pizza, pretzel or popcorn think about what you could really be eating or what kind of germs you could be putting in your mouth.