E. coli and food poisoning

How topical can you get?  New book explores food contamination

The subject of Jeff Benedict's latest book, Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That changed the Way Americans Eat, is as up-to-the-moment as today's headlines. 

While Europe is reeling from the fatal fall-out of bean sprout contamination, it is nothing new. Tragic outbreaks of E.coli have happened before.

One particularly terrible case was the 1990s contamination of hamburgers that sickened hundreds of customers, many of them children, led to four deaths, and brought the Jack in the Box chain to its knees.

Focusing on the sad case of one child, Benedict describes the medical sleuthing, legal ramifications, corporate damage control, and public reforms that follow deadly outbreaks of food poisoning.