The allegations coming out of a major airline catering facility near Los Angeles International Airport are stomach-turning: workers say they found mold-covered dishes, maggots, flies, cockroaches, and filthy carts, yet were allegedly told to clean some of the dishes and put them back into service.

LAX Airline Caterer Accused Of Mold, Maggots, Cockroaches, And Reusing Filthy Dishes

Workers at Flying Food Group, a large airline caterer serving Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), have filed a 16-page complaint with Cal/OSHA (the state agency that sets and enforces workplace safety rules) alleging a laundry list of revolting and potentially dangerous conditions inside two facilities serving LAX.

The allegations include:

Mold-covered decomposing food left sitting in airline dish carts
Live maggots and flies on dishes
Cockroaches in food preparation and storage areas
Black growth, alleged to be mold, across the dish room ceiling
Bathrooms and handwashing stations repeatedly running out of soap and paper towels
Dirty airline carts sitting unwashed for days or even weeks
Refrigerated catering trucks with broken cooling systems

To be clear from the outset, these are allegations contained in a union complaint and are now subject to investigation. There is no evidence that a passenger became sick from any of the food involved, nor has any specific inflight meal been shown to have been contaminated.

Even so, the pictures and employee accounts are repulsive. Here, take a look:

Worker Says Moldy, Maggot-Covered Dishes Were Ordered Back Into Service

The most disturbing allegation involves an incident on June 23, 2026.

According to the complaint, a longtime dish-room employee opened a cart that had apparently been sitting unopened for an extended period and discovered dozens of dishes containing decomposing food.

The complaint says many of the dishes were covered in mold and what appeared to be live maggots and flies, accompanied by an overwhelming stench.

The employee asked that the dishes be discarded.

According to the union, her supervisor refused.

She was allegedly told that the dishes were needed for an upcoming flight and instructed to clean them in the industrial dishwasher instead.

ABC7 reported that the worker was not given a mask or special protective equipment while handling the dishes and later complained of stomach pain, a headache, and discomfort in her nose.

That is disgusting.

Industrial dishwashers obviously exist to sanitize reusable plates, bowls, and utensils. Airline dishes are reused thousands of times. But there is a substantial difference between washing a dirty dinner plate and opening a cart full of food that has been allowed to decompose long enough to attract maggots.

At some point, throw the dishes away.

Cockroaches Near Food And Airline Carts

Workers also allege that cockroaches or similar vermin have repeatedly appeared throughout the facility.

The complaint describes sightings near trash cans, food storage areas, employee changing areas, and the cafeteria. One worker says she photographed what appeared to be cockroaches in the kitchen and on a Lufthansa catering cart in December 2025. Another employee reported seeing them in areas where bread, meat, fruit, and peanuts were stored.

Workers also claim that dirty carts can remain beside a dishwasher for days or even weeks, producing what one employee described as a fermented smell while attracting flies, mosquitoes, and cockroaches.

Flying Food Group operates catering facilities across the United States and serves many major international carriers.

View From The Wing notes that airlines using Flying Food Group at LAX include Lufthansa, Air France, SWISS, Virgin Atlantic, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, ANA, Starlux, China Southern, Qantas, Air New Zealand, and Hawaiian Airlines.

To be clear, none of that means meals served by any of these airlines were contaminated. But it sure raises a lot of doubt!

There Is A Labor Dispute Here, But That Does Not Make The Allegations Irrelevant

The complaint was filed by UNITE HERE Local 11, which has been locked in a long-running labor dispute with Flying Food Group. The union contract expired in 2022, and the union is plainly using these allegations to apply pressure to the company.

While we should keep that in mind, it is also not a reason to dismiss what workers are alleging.

The complaint contains photographs, videos, dates, and accounts from multiple employees. Cal/OSHA has already cited Flying Food Group this year for separate workplace safety violations at its two LAX-serving facilities, with $74,000 in proposed penalties.

Those citations involved issues including cold-storage rooms that could not be opened from inside and missing safety equipment. They do not prove the new sanitation allegations, but they do demonstrate that regulators have already identified serious problems at these facilities.

Flying Food Group told CNN that it is reviewing the latest allegations and cooperating with regulators.

Airlines Must Exercise More Catering Oversight

Much of the food you eat on airplane is prepared and assembled by massive third-party catering operations near airports, often hours before it ever reaches the aircraft.

That system can work very well, but airlines need to know exactly what is happening inside the kitchens carrying their names onto their aircraft.

If these allegations are substantiated, I would expect every carrier using this facility to demand immediate corrective action, and I would not blame an airline for temporarily moving its catering elsewhere, much like American Airlines did in London earlier this year (reportedly under similar circumstances).

There is no need for hysteria here: I see no evidence that passengers are being served plates crawling with maggots. But neither should anyone shrug at a worker allegedly being told to wash mold- and maggot-covered dishes because the company needed them for another flight.

(It’s not that these dishes were necessarily ruined, but you don’t just pop moldy or maggot-covered dishes into a dishwasher).

CONCLUSION

Flying Food Group workers at LAX have alleged mold, maggots, flies, cockroaches, inadequate sanitation supplies, and other disturbing conditions inside facilities preparing airline meals.

For now, these remain allegations, and there is an ongoing labor dispute that provides important context. But the specifics are detailed enough and disturbing enough that Cal/OSHA should investigate aggressively.

I love airline food and probably pay closer attention to it than most people. After reading this complaint, though, I will look at the plate itself a little more carefully before digging in, especially when flying out of LAX.