Good Housekeeping Keeps Watchdog Journalism Alive with Food Safety Expose

I don't typically think to pick up Good Housekeeping when I want some hard-hitting, investigative reporting, but this month the grocery store check-out aisle glossy teamed up with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism to take a close look at food safety in the United States. The findings? "Each year, about 48 million people — one in six Americans — get sick from something they ate. Contaminated food sends 128,000 victims to the hospital, and it kills 3,000 children and adults," writes Madeline Drexler. Most shocking of all is that the "big six" E Coli strains that poison people the most are in frighteningly high percentages of packaged foods. And yet, the USDA had no prohibition against them--until this article. An editor's note reports that since its publication, the USDA has banned all six strains, which means food companies will soon have to test for them and destroy the batch if the bacteria are found. This is how powerful investigative journalism can be. This one reporter may indeed be saving lives!