Organoleptic Specialist Steven Angold inspects seafood at the FDA’s $40 million facility in Irvine, Calif. Photo: Kyle Bruggeman/News21

Earlier this week, Knight Foundation blogged about how the student-led News21 program published a major food safety investigation in The Washington Post and on MSNBC.com. MNSBC.com’s coverage continued with a story on how tainted seafood reaches U.S households. According to the article, an analysis done by News21 showed the U.S. imported more than 17.6 million tons of seafood over the last decade and that only 2 percent of it went through inspection. The investigation was based on import data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is cause for serious concern because “80 percent of the seafood in America is imported.” Furthermore:

“[A] News21 analysis of FDA import-refusal data reveals an unappetizing portrait. In more than half of cases when seafood is rejected, the fish has been deemed filthy, meaning it was spoiled or contained physical abnormalities, or it was contaminated with a foodborne pathogen. About 20 percent of those cases involved salmonella.”

Previously, The Washington Post covered how salmonella-infected poultry often leaves consumers vulnerable.  Other topics related to food safety covered by News21’s investigation include foodborne illness, unhealthy produce, pesticides, and safety inspection gaps. News21, which promotes in-depth, interactive and innovative investigative journalism, is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Knight Foundation. It is headquartered at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.