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
Sundae Scaries: The 2015 Listeria outbreak in Ice Cream
Imagine this: you order a milkshake during your stay in the hospital to help make light of the situation at hand, just to find out that the ice cream used in the milkshake actually made you sick: Listeria. A place to heal has now placed you in further danger, how could this have happened? This podcast explores Blue Bell Creameries first ever recall of products due to adulterated products contaminated with Listeria.
Listeria is known as one of the deadliest foodborne pathogens but to the general public, this is not typically known. Listeria is especially deadly because of its ability to survive in diverse environments and withstand extreme temperatures where once it enters the human body, it travels quickly through the bloodstream and can reach the brain. Given its infamous reputation, one might assume that food safety systems would advise food companies and farmers to be especially cautious of the pathogen.
However, this was not the case for Blue ell Creameries who did not even have tests in place for the identification of Listeria despite how Listeria is commonly found in dairy products. Blue Bell began as a butter company and then transitioned into being a household ice cream brand in the Southern United States. The company never had to recall their products until 2015when the South Carolina State Health Department sampled Blue Bell products and found traces of Listeria within them.There were a total of 10 infected consumers and 3 deaths in this entire outbreak, which may not seem like a lot to researchers who are accustomed to the fatalities that Listeria can cause, but to the public it’s alarming.This podcast further explores how it could be that this deadly pathogen could have affected a small number of people in comparison to other Listeria outbreaks. The entities, technology,and science involved are analyzed to better understand the successes and failures of the food safety system and what it implies moving forward.
Produced by Sarah Khan, Elenna Fathi, and Crystal He
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.