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" ...
-
Restaurant Reservations
Pioneer Press reporters found "from 1995-1999 restaurants violated food-safety regulations at least 130,000 times." Violations included unsafe food temperatures, cross-contamination risks, poor employee hygiene and insects/vermin in storage areas. Their investigation discovered that top health officials had given restaurants second, third and fouth chances before issuing penalities and were making deals to keep problems quiet. Above all, consumers were the last to know about code violations until food poisioning had struck.
Tags: State Department of Health; contamination; food poisioning
-
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
-
Problems at flu vaccine plant were pervasive, FDA knew
An investigation by the Kansas City Star found that the Food and Drug Administration should have had some knowledge of flu vaccinations contamination, based on a previous investigation of the same British company five years ago. According to the investigation, FDA inspectors should have been suspicious of the company when they found instances of contamination in 1999. Inspectors discovered the company "was mixing samples of highly contaminated unfinished vaccines with cleaner batches to reach lower bacteria levels."
Tags: Food and Drug Administration; Medeva; flu vaccinations
-
Pandora's Pantry
Mother Jones investigates "the worldwide revolt over gene-altered foods [that] has begun to take root in this country." Critics of genetically engineered, or GE, crops say such food products could "create unexpected new allergens or contaminate products in unanticipated ways, resulting in threats to public health... In addition, many scientists fear that bio-engineered crops could spark widespread ecological damage, creating insecticide-resistant bugs and herbicide-resistant 'superweeds' that would make kudzu and purple look like so many summer dandelions." Mother Jones discovered that the Food and Drug Administration ignored the objections of several scientists concerning the safety of GE foods and products.
Tags: genetic engineering; GE; foods; health; safety; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; gene-altered; bio-engineered crops
-
Where's the Beef
Dateline attempted to "find out if, when you buy ground beef in the supermarket, you are truly getting pure ground beef. We also wanted to know if that ground beef was contaminated with any harmful bacteria or parasites."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT USDA beef; food safety; bacteria; supermarkets; parasites; heath safety
-
Outbreak
The San Francisco Examiner reports that "more than 150 patients - perhaps many more - suffered debilitating infections that were later linked in public records to their physicians' use of ordinary medical sutures allegedly contaminated with infectious bacteria." The Examiner found "... alleged negligence on the part of a surgical manufacturer and inaction by federal regulators responsible for ensuring the safety of medical products."
Tags: CAR FDA Food and Drug Administration Medical Device Reports Johnson & Johnson
-
Contaminated Food: You're the last to know
In the last three years the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chose not to actively publicize its most serious recalls 39 percent of the time, according to a Free Press analysis of recent recall records. Companies routinely pull products from the market with virtually no public notice -- even in cases where the food was likely to make people sick, or could even have been deadly.
Tags: None
-
How safe is our food?
A year and a half ago, Sarah Witmar was among the children who almost died from drinking contaminated apple juice. San Jose Mercury News West reports on the E. coli outbreak and how it's changing attitudes toward what we eat and drink.
Tags: Contamination FDA Food and Drug Administration Public Health Department
-
No title (id: 10057)
Inside Edition reveals that the Food Safety Inspection Service has since the 1980s quietly shifted responsibility for inspecting beef and poultry from federal inspectors to company 'quality control' workers who often ignore contaminations and fail to follow federal guidelines when poultry falls on the floor or is otherwise contaminated, Nov. 19, 1994.
Tags: NY Harris Meagher Department of Agriculture tape 13 pages
-
No title (id: 7693)
Atlantic Monthly looks into the poultry industry and the threat new chicken processing techniques pose in regard to salmonella and food poisoning; the rise in chicken consumption has raised the risk of contamination, November 1990.
Tags: MA Bruce USDA