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 "food contamination" ...
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What's in your burger?
This story revealed how a number of restaurants aren’t following health code guidelines. These violations include not using gloves, not cooking at correct temperatures, no mouth guards at buffets, no sanitizer in rag buckets, dirty restrooms, no dates on food in the refrigerator, and storing food where it is subject to contamination.
Tags: health inspection; records; Cedar City; food; sickness; food protection code; Public Health Department; home-owned; chains; privately owned
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Contaminated
"This series of undercover reports exposes dangerous health and food safety problems at a major facility that distributes food to thousands of restaurants and stores in Southern California and wester U.S. We revealed how food from L.A.'s huge 7th Street Wholesale Produce Market... is getting contaminated before it even gets to the restaurants." They also found that the Los Angeles County Health officials knew about this and had done nothing about it.
Tags: health; food; wholesaler; undercover; safety; Los Angeles county Health Department; restaurants;
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Infested Oatmeal
Boxes of oatmeal had "an excessive amount of meal moths," the bugs were both inside the box and individual packets.
Tags: consumer; oatmeal; food; health; safety; FDA; infestation; contamination;
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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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Grocery Chains sit out Detroit's Rebirth
Detroit is virtually without chain grocers that promise consistent quality, and stores in the city have food safety violations at about twice the statewide rate for problems such as selling rotten meat and expired infant formula, a Free Press examination found.From 2003 to 2006, just 25 percent of the city's grocery stores were free of critical violations, defined as those that directly contribute to food contamination or illness.
Tags: food safety; health; grocery stores; city quality; food contamination
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The Mercury Menace
The reporters investigated supermarkets throughout the Chicago area that routinely sell seafood highly contaminated with mercury, a toxic metal that can cause learning disabilities in children and neurological problems in adults. The Tribune commissioned mercury testing of random samples of fish from markets across Chicago.
Tags: mercury; fish; seafood; toxic; food regulations; learning disabilities; FDA
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The Mercury Menace
The authors investigated supermarkets throughout the Chicago area that are routinely selling seafood that is highly contaminated with mercury, a toxic metal that can cause learning disabilities in children and neurological problems in adults. The Tribune commissioned mercury testing of random samples of fish from markets across Chicago.
Tags: mercury; fish; seafood; toxic; food regulations; learning disabilities; FDA
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Dangerous Doses: How Counterfeiters are Contaminating America's Drug Supply
Eban writes about how medicine available from seemingly trustworthy sources like pharmacies and hospitals is sometimes not safe. The book shows how stolen, expired, mishandled or adulterated medicine cans still make their way into pharmacies and hospitals because they are passed through several other companies who buy and sell to one another. These companies sometimes have ties to drug traffickers and organized crime.
Tags: FDA; Food and Drug Administration; narcotics; hospitals; doctors; pharmaceuticals; pharmaceutical companies; drug dealers; Medicaid; Medicare; Mafia; business; prescription drugs; doctors; pharmacists; Operation Cold Stone
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Dirty Dining III
Dateline examined health inspection reports for 1,000 restaurants from the top ten family chains. They found that every chain but one averaged one critical violation, or a violation that can make a customer sick, per inspection. The best chain was Denny's with 296 critical violations in 100 sampled restaurants, and the worst was Waffle House with 594 critical violations in the 100 sampled restaurants.
Tags: health inspections; family dining; food contamination; CAR computer-assisted reporting
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ConAgra Meat Recall
The Denver Post analyzes the "inner workings of an ongoing recall by the ConAgra Beef Co. In Greeley, CO, which first began as a modest 354,200-pound call back and expanded into the nation's second largest ever. The plant was later shuttered because of recurring problems with contamination. The stories examine... violations at the plant and secrets kept from the government, the USDA's gaff in delaying it's own findings and warnings to the company and public, the public's inability to learn whether they have contaminated meat, and ConAgra's broken promises to inform the public."
Tags: meatpacking; ConAgra; Colorado; food poisoning; USDA; contamination; meat