Food Integrity Campaign |
January 22, 1991
Employees of the grocery chain Food Lion approached Government Accountability Project with reports of egregious food safety violations at their stores in North Carolina. They described witnessing practices such as putting expired meat in sausage, concealing evidence of meat spoilage, and ignoring rampant cockroach and rodent infestations. Fearing retaliation from management, these employees relied on us to protect their identities. Those fears proved to be well-founded. ABC aired a scathing investigative report about Food Lion’s misdeeds, and Food Lion’s stock value plummeted. Food Lion then waged a ten-year legal battle against us in order to obtain the names of the employee whistleblowers—a battle we won.
