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The series had its origin in a recall announcement. Ground beef sold by Maine-based Hannaford Foods had been linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened 14 people in seven states. On Dec. 15, the grocery chain announced the recall of all its in-store ground beef with a sell-by date of Dec. 17 or earlier. When officials stonewalled on basic questions, our reporters worked with dozens of sources, including food safety experts, former USDA employees, butchers, agriculture academics and the outbreak victims themselves to demonstrate how this one outbreak, the latest of scores of similar outbreaks nationwide, was a result of federal regulators and local retailers knowingly ignoring best practices that could have prevented the outbreak in the first place, or allowed investigators to trace the source of the salmonella contamination.