Too Much Power to the People? A Food Safety Site Tests the Limits<br />“We constantly monitor all available sources of information — including social media platforms<br />and third-party reporting websites — to ensure we are aware of any allegation of illness, and we have robust procedures in place to look into any claims that are made.”<br />After the 2015 Chipotle incident drew attention to the site, Mr. Quade realized that IWasPoisoned could become a real business.<br />Power users — like, say, a hedge fund that can profit from knowing about an E. coli outbreak at a major restaurant chain ahead<br />of the rest of the market — pay up to $5,000 a month for real-time alerts whenever a new report is posted to the site.<br />“With every report, our promise is to make sure it’s a real person who believes they have food poisoning,” Mr. Quade said.<br />According to Mr. Quade, public health agencies in 46 states<br />and representatives from more than half of the top 50 restaurant chains in America subscribe to the site’s daily email alerts.<br />“I could tell that Chipotle was a problem brand,” Mr. Quade said.<br />Dunkin’ Brands, the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts<br />and Baskin-Robbins, saw its stock fall 2.4 percent last July after traders on Wall Street circulated reports of a food-poisoning incident at one of the chain’s stores, according to the financial news site Benzinga.
