Phoebe Judge

Jack in the Box is one of the oldest fast food chains in the country.

27 of the 37 sick children had eaten there.

The top public health official in the state, a man named John Kobayashi, contacted Jack in the Box headquarters and said they had a problem, a potential E. coli outbreak.

At that time, what is known about E. coli?

E. coli is a kind of bacteria that can be found in the intestines of people and animals.

There are many different strains of E. coli, and many don't cause any harm.

But some can be deadly, including one called E. coli 0157 H7.

One of the few things that they did know was that most people at the time got E. coli from eating undercooked ground beef.

State epidemiologist John Kobayashi asked Jack in the Box how they cooked their hamburgers.

They said that they made sure to cook them to an internal temperature of 140 degrees, which was the federal regulation.

But one year earlier, John Kobayashi had raised the Washington state required cooking temperature for ground beef from 140 degrees to 155 degrees.

And Jack in the Box had just admitted that they hadn't been doing that.

At the time, what was the USDA doing in terms of food safety?

Jack in the Box temporarily shut down their 66 locations in the state, and John Kobayashi issued a statement officially naming Jack in the Box as the source of the outbreak.

I'm Phoebe Judge.

This is Criminal.

By January 28th, two children at Seattle Children's Hospital had died from E. coli, and there were over 200 confirmed cases.

Jack in the Box's CEO, Bob Nugent, was called to Washington, D.C.

to testify in front of the Senate.

Bob Nugent acknowledged that their Washington restaurants hadn't been meeting the state mandatory cooking temperature and said, quote,