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 "sanitation violations" ...
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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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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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Who's watching over Kansas City's restaurants?
The Kansas City Star reports on severe sanitation problems at city's restaurants. The investigation main findings include that roughly 800 food establishments had gone a year or more without routine inspection; the inspection staff is generally inexperienced and poorly paid; the city food code lacks serious financial penalties and is based on 25-year-old federal standards many other cities abandoned years ago. The stories document about 20,000 food code violations discovered by city inspectors from 1996 to 1999. In some instances, inspectors ignored sanitation problems that could have led to closing of a restaurant.
Tags: food code; foodborne diseases; sanitation; diners; safety; public health; FDA; Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; CAR
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Outbreak
The Washington Post Magazine investigates the failure of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prevent 21 deaths caused by contaminated meat from Sara Lee Corp. The story reveals that the contamination occurred because of moisture problems in the cooling section of "the giant Bil Mar Foods meatpacking plant in western Michigan." While deaths were tolling, the USDA was leery to issue a press release for fear not to face the legal implications of wrongly accusing the meatproducer. Even though Bil Mar quietly recalled the deadly products from the market, people were still eating meat kept in refrigerators or supermarkets and contaminated with the dangerous Listeria bacteria, the magazine reports. A major finding is that government lacks regulatory power to recall unsafe foods, as well as penalties system for repeated violations in the food industry.
Tags: health; FDA; meat; bacteria; contamination; Sara Lee; CDC; listeria; sanitation; immune system; pregnancy; hot dogs; deli meats; consumers; lawsuits
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Enforcement Lacking for Problem Restaurants
A News-Journal investigation found that the Florida state government has been unable to force a "persistent minority of Volusia and Flagler county restaurants where state inspectors have documented chronically poor sanitation and food handling" to clean up their kitchens. The investigation revealed that Florida "lacks a system for tracking repeat violations" and rarely fines restaurants repeatedly cited for poor food handling practices.
Tags: Food handling; sanitation; Florida; regulation; restaurants
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Filth in the Fields
A report on field sanitation in Florida agriculture. We discovered flagrant violations of state and federal field sanitation laws. We found that government enforcement of those laws had fallen through bureaucratic cracks. Our tests of local strawberries detected alarming E-coli bacteria contamination. The local agriculture community disputed our findings. Farmers were angry. Yet, the story turned out to be an early warning for illness that broke out elsewhere last year.
Tags: TAPE
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No title (id: 3092)
WSMV-TV (Nashville) airs series on how a meat-packing plant that was a chronic violator of federal sanitation standards continued to operate because of the government's poor inspection and enforcement system, August 1984.
Tags: Tape