NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- ESPN’s Outside The Lines recently aired a story about the health code violations found at LP Field, Bridgestone Arena and other major league sports venues across the country.

The Channel 4 I-Team sorted through inspection reports from the past year to get to the bottom of the violations.

Food vendors that set up inside LP Field have been cited for hundreds of violations by the Metro Health Department. But city officials said it's not the number of violations that's important, but what the violations are that matter most.

“I know in Tennessee, they're known for being tough inspections. I mean we look at everything,” said Metro's Director of Food Protection Steve Crosier.

Crosier was not surprised by the findings of the ESPN report that rated different cities' sports arenas based on food vendors' critical health violations.

According to that report 62 percent of vendors at the Titan's LP Field had critical health violations. Fifty-nine percent of vendors inside the Predators' Bridgestone Arena were cited with critical violations.

Crosier said these percentages are based solely on the number of vendors with what are considered critical violations.

Tennessee's health codes are often considered stricter than some other states. In one case, a vendor was cited with a critical violation for not labeling a bottle of cleaning product. That wouldn't be a serious violation in other states.

“It probably would look bad when you compare it other places that might not have as strong of an inspection. We go in during the time they are operating. I saw in the ESPN story where some (venues) were inspected when nothing was going on at the venues,” said Crosier.

But there were violations found that would be considered critical in all states, like mice droppings found on the floor.

In another serious case a vendor scored a 75 because of 12 different violations, including employees with unclean hands, food at improper temperatures and surfaces that were unsanitized.

In response to Channel 4’s report, the Predators’ food supplier, Sportservice, sent Channel 4 the following statement:

"Sportservice works closely with health inspectors to correct any problems that are identified. The standards we are meeting are very high."

The main food vendor at LP Field, Centerplate, sent Channel 4 this statement:

"Any deficiencies that are identified during the course of an inspection are corrected, usually immediately in the presence of the inspector."

Metro Health officials said all of the critical citations at Bridgestone Arena and at LP Field were eventually corrected. So far, there have been no reports of illness caused from their food.