Phoebe Judge

In all, over 700 people got sick in the Jack in the Box outbreak, mostly children.

Four kids died.

Riley Detweiler was the fourth.

Darren Detweiler and his then-wife filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jack in the Box's parent company.

It was settled in March of 1993 for an undisclosed amount.

Darren Detweiler eventually became a food safety expert.

He got a doctorate degree in law and policy, focusing on food policy, and he's been called one of America's leading food safety advocates.

no criminal charges were ever brought against Jack in the Box management.

They paid around $100 million total in settlements to victims.

Following the outbreak, they implemented a new food safety system in all of their restaurants.

Their sales had dropped about 30%.

Some of Jack in the Box's new food safety protocols were eventually adopted by the federal government.

The USDA raised the federal mandatory cooking temperature.

Now all states had to cook beef to 155 degrees.

And in 1994, E. coli was officially classified as a contaminant when found in food.

The USDA also implemented new rules for meat processing plants to be more proactive about preventing contamination.

Bill Marler kept practicing law and made a niche for himself in food safety law.

Bill Marler has represented thousands of clients over the past 30 years, cases dealing with E. coli, salmonella, listeria, and hepatitis.

Bill often says he begs the food industry to, quote, put me out of business.

In our next episode, the story of how a group of young men volunteered to eat food laced with things like formaldehyde, borax, and salicylic acid every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and how they paved the way for the first major food safety laws in America.