The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "e-coli" ...
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Trouble on the Tray
This series found problems in the federal, state, and local programs that supplied food to the nation’s schoolchildren. Some of the major findings: beef supplied for school lunches wouldn’t pass at national fast-food restaurants, chicken found at schools is only quality enough for pet food, supplied recalled beef to schools, failed to inform schools of bad tortillas, and many schools lacked the two inspections per year.
Tags: Food safety; Schoolchildren; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Schools; Cafeteria; Government; Lunch; Beef; Children; Food; Bad food; E. coli
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Food Safety
Recently the food industry has been searching for cheaper ingredients, but this increases the risk to consumers' safety. In this series, they look at foods from peanuts to hamburgers. Furthermore, the federal agencies who examine the food industry have flaws, which weaken their attempts to improve food safety.
Tags: Food; Food industry; Safety; Food safety; Risk; Consumers; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Inspectors; ConAgra Foods; E. coli
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Danger on Your Plate
The Center for Investigative Reporting hired the food analysis lab of the Sarajevo Veterinary School to test food samples purchased in farmers' markets, food shops and stalls to determine food safety. Center reporters found problems with contamination, government inspection, labeling, waste, and NGO's that collect money but "really do little to guard consumers against bad food."
Tags: food safety; Mad Cow Disease; CIN; Linking Agricultural Markets to Producers; LAMP; E.coli; proteus; alfotoxins; bacteria; fungi; food handling; TRACES animal tracking; smuggling; World Health Organization; Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations; EU
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Trouble on the Farm: From Research to Waste
This investigation of animal neglect at the University of Nevada, Reno revealed that: administrators set up a camera in a smoke detector outside a faculty whistleblower's lab; students alleged late-night intruders tampered with e-coli experiments to discredit the professor; a network of unregulated "homeland security" cameras kept the campus under surveillance; "valueless" sheep injected with human stem cells were sent to a university ranch as part of a weed eradication project and were swiftly killed by predators. And, although the University denied all the animal abuse allegations, the USDA cited it for 46 violations in May and another 10 in October, which included many of the same neglects documented in the story.
Tags: University of Nevada - Reno; animal abuse; animal neglect; United States Department of Agriculture; USDA; surveillance; human stem cells; e-coli
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"Downer Cow Controversy"
This investigation began by raising questions about the lack of federal inspection outside a slaughterhouse and the treatment of cows. Particularly it raised questions about health risks involving "downer" cows -- weak, sick or crippled dairy cows processed into beef for the kitchen table. The state's beef and dairy commissions, state agencies funded by fees attached to beef and dairy products, criticized the station's reports. The television station was tried in abstentia by the Washington News Council and found to have been unfair to the beef industry. The station earlier had refused to participate in the arbitration, saying its reports were accurate and that the council itself is partial. On Dec. 23, the first U.S. case of mad cow was announced. The animal was a downer cow processed at the same slaughterhouse that was the subject of the station's initial investigation.
Tags: beef; cattle; mad cow; downer cows; USDA; dairy; E. coli; food safety; meat-packing plants; slaughterhouse
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Stonewall
This story addresses clause in Ohio's Bioterrorism Bill, which allows it to hide information gathered during public health investigations. The reporter discovered that hiding this information was more of a pattern than an exception. She found examples of the Department's efforts to bury information, stonewall citizens, and downplay health risks. For example...in one community, data was skewed to show no link between toxins in the soil and local leukemia cases. Not only does the Health Department hide this information, they make it nearly impossible to retrieve, by ignoring information requests...even the State Attorney General couldn't get answers to its health-related inquiry.
Tags: Ohio Department of Health; Bioterrorism Bill; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Ohio Attorney General; EPA; health assessment; public health; stonewall; health risks; public health information; Ohio Attorney General; Centers for Disease Control; Waste Technologies Industries; hazardous waste; cancer rates; air pollution; pollution testing; leukemia; autism; neurological disorders; multiple sclerosis; well water; health hazard; toxic chemicals; Trichlorethylene (TCE); anthrax; e.coli; Greenpeace
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What is being fed to schoolchildren?
Millions of American children get free or reduced lunch through a government program, but critics claim that some of the food, particularly meat, is contaminated.
Tags: food; school-lunch program; USDA; agriculture; sanitation violations; AMS; Agricultural Marketing Service; E.coli; meat inspection; contamination
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Some Airlines Mishandle Food, Sewage Disposal
"Some of the country's biggest airlines and in-flight caterers have violated federal health regulations of food storage and sewage handling, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration records. So far this year, the agency has sent six 'warning letters' about violations to carriers including Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Continental Airlines - twice the number send during the same period in 1997." Trains and buses are also discussed.
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America's Fish: Fair or foul -- In tests of fish across the U.S., we found some room for improvement
A Consumer Reports examination of the nation's supermarket seafood counters found that "although most seafood was safe to eat, there were enough exceptions to suggest that the seafood industry has considerable room for improvement -- and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees most seafood-safety matters, is falling short in key areas." Half of the swordfish samples tested exceeded the "action level," for methylmercury, which can harm the nervous system. The magazine advises pregnant women and young children not to eat swordfish or shark. It also found that one in eight samples of tuna had unacceptable levels of histamine, a chemical that can cause hives and other reactions.
Tags: fish; food safety; seafood; swordfish; spoilage; e. coli; histamine; methylmercury; mercury; tuna; shellfish; Food and Drug Administration; FDA
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Tainted meal, tainted system
The Star-Tribune found after 18 Minneapolis grade children became sick that their school was never inspected by the state, county or city sanitarians. In addition, "cafeterias in more than 300 other schools in the state had never been inspected", and numerous other schools had only begun implementing sanitation standards in recent months. The parents of children who could have eaten contaminated food were never notified by their schools."The state and federal systems designed to find the source of contaminated food didn't work and the USDA gave conflicting accounts about whether the meat was contaminated at all." This story lead to Minnesota legislators forming a Children's Environmental Health Issues committee to implement that all school cafeterias are inspected for sanitation.
Tags: United States Department of Agriculture; Food safety; E.Coli