“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for E. coli today.” (found image)

From the Sioux City Journal;

New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss, who last year brought increased public scrutiny to Dakota Dunes-based Beef Products Inc., was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Tuesday.

Moss and other Times staff members won the Pulitzer for explanatory journalism for their reports on contaminated hamburger and other food safety issues, which spotlighted defects in federal regulation and led to improved practices.

“Moss used confidential corporate and government records to tell the story of a single hamburger patty that infected 22-year-old Stephanie Smith with E. coli in 2007 and left her paralyzed,” the Associated Press reported, “2010 Pulitzer Winners.”

“He showed how the patty was constructed from low-grade beef trimmings supplied by three separate slaughterhouses in the U.S. and Uruguay, as well as from a processed meat product treated with ammonia.”

In a followup story in late December, Moss scrutinized BPI’s meat treatment process, which helped grow the private Dakota Dunes-based firm into the world’s largest supplier of boneless lean beef.

The Times obtained government and industry records it said challenged claims by the company and the USDA about the effectiveness of the company’s ammonia treatment process.

Based on the Times report, the USDA said it would revoke BPI’s exemption from routine testing and conduct a review of the company’s operations and research.

BPI later took issue with the story and a related Times editorial in an open letter to its customers that the company said “set the record straight.” A link to the letter has since been removed from BPI’s home page.

6 Thoughts on “Pink Slime story wins Pulitzer Prize (H/T – Hos)

  1. anominous on April 15, 2010 at 9:11 pm said:

    There are so many throw-uppy things from this great state!

  2. Leave Janklow out of this.

  3. Plaintiff Guy on April 16, 2010 at 8:45 am said:

    I’ll recall this when I drive past Fuddruckers and park at Olive Garden.

  4. anominous on April 16, 2010 at 9:30 pm said:

    Jesus, God, it’s just so awful.

  5. I heard you can get ‘pink slime’ at his other establishment too, Borrowed Bucks.

  6. danny on March 9, 2012 at 6:56 pm said:

    This is disturbing to say the least. How long have then poisining us!! Am I the only one that finds the unacceptable

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