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Farm to Fatal: Food for Thought
Is our food safe? Would you know if it is? Follow UCLA undergrads as they explore a dozen foodborne outbreaks and their consequences.
In Farm to Fatal, twelve different outbreaks illuminate the biology of foodborne illness, the complexity of modern food safety regulation, and the details of how we make food safe... or fail to. In Winter 2025, UCLA undergrads in the Human Biology and Society major set out to explore the intricacies of food safety in the US. Each group explored an outbreak over the last 30 years, diving into the details of the bacteriology, the illness and the treatments on the one hand, and the insanely complex system of governance, audit, oversight, lawsuits and regulations. Dive into every corner of the food safety world, from e. Coli to Hepatitis A, from South Africa to Arizona, from the challenge of regulating raw milk to the difficulties of cleaning tanker trucks, from the "sewer state" to problem of "organized non-knowledge". Across the episodes students find a new respect for the challenge of governing food, the problems with the existing system, and also the need to defend it.
Farm to Fatal: Food for Thought
Salsification! The 2003 Hepatitis A Outbreak
A beloved family-friendly restaurant turns out to be not-so-friendly after all — it was supposed to be a dinner, not a funeral.
4 Deaths. over 650 incidents of illness. Official cause still unknown. In the fall of 2003, the United States saw the worst Hepatitis A outbreak it had ever seen, spreading across 7 states. Where did it all originate? From a quaint Mexican restaurant just 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Chi-Chi’s was founded in Minnesota during the 1970s in an attempt to bring Mexican food to an area where it was a scarcity. Business boomed, profits rose, and Chi-Chi’s became a popular chain restaurant in the midwest, boasting locations in 19 states. Misfortune fell in 2003 when a shipment of Hepatitis A contaminated green onions was brought in to the Chi-Chi’s in Beaver valley Mall, Pennsylvania. What happened next was a series of unfortunate events, ultimately leading Chi-Chi’s to close its doors permanently. unless... it wasn’t
permanent?
Produced by Evangeline Bodhuri, Delna Cherian, and Sharon Iype
These podcast episodes were created by members of the 2025 Winter Capstone course in the Human Biology and Society major at UCLA's Institute for Society and Genetics (https://socgen.ucla.edu/). The faculty sponsor is Christopher Kelty. For questions or concerns email ckelty@ucla.edu.