Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Securing What Feeds Us: Why Every Food Cyberattack Is a Food Safety Incident | Episode 190

When hackers took over refrigeration systems in grocery stores across France, the cybersecurity world focused on how they got in. Almost nobody asked the bigger question: what happened to the food? Kristin King says that blind spot is exactly what puts our food supply at risk.

Recorded live at the Food Safety Consortium, Francine and Matt sit down with Kristin King, operational technology security expert, host of Bites and Bytes, and author of Securing What Feeds Us, to talk about where cybersecurity and food safety collide, and about what it is really like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry.

Spoiler alert: In the food industry, a cyberattack is a food safety incident until someone proves it isn’t.

In this episode:
[01:39] Live from the Food Safety Consortium with Kristin King
[03:37] Animal food safety, zoo commissaries, and “gorilla salad”
[07:32] The JBS ransomware attack and food and agriculture as critical infrastructure
[08:44] Founding her firm, launching Bites and Bytes, and writing Securing What Feeds Us
[16:48] More than 400 publicly reported food sector incidents in seven years
[17:50] The book’s atlas of global food and ag cyber incidents
[25:25] If it doesn’t need to be on the internet, don’t put it there
[27:25] Insurance, nation-state attackers, and “acts of war”
[36:30] Allyship and finding your advocates
[40:40] Where to find Kristin, her book, and her podcast
[43:37] The book’s dedication to everyone who touches food

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

• Securing What Feeds Us by Kristin King
• Bites and Bytes podcast
• Kristin’s firm, AnzenSage 
• JBS ransomware attack coverage 
• French grocery store refrigeration hack coverage 
• Food Safety Consortium

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Anytime there is a cybersecurity incident within food, it is automatically a food safety incident until someone tells me otherwise. And it needs to be treated that way first.” — Kristin King

“Things have to change, but it is not my responsibility to change it. My responsibility is to remind people to be good human beings and that when they see something they need to say something and that’s the truth about it.” — Kristin King

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We’d love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, Kristin King, and the “Don’t Eat Poop!” show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

 Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

Produced by Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Infant Formula Botulism: One Supplier, Two Brands | Episode 189

Two infant formula brands, made by different companies on different continents, sickened babies with botulism seven months apart. The thing they had in common wasn’t a factory. It was an ingredient, sourced from the same organic whole milk supplier and spray-dried at the same facility, and nobody in the chain was testing for botulism.

Francine and Matt break down how the outbreak was traced upstream, why “we never tested for that” keeps showing up in outbreak investigations, and what it would take for companies to get ahead of risks they don’t even know exist yet. Spoiler alert: food safety keeps getting treated as an expense until an outbreak forces it to become an investment.

In this episode:
💩 01:16 The CDC names the supplier behind the infant formula botulism outbreak
💩 06:56 The Marler Blog breakdown: one ingredient, two brands
💩 10:49 The sub-supplier problem: brands may not know where their ingredients originate
💩 17:09 Risk assessments by product and region
💩 22:44 Food safety budgets: investment or expense?
💩 33:31 Francine’s experience auditing for insurance companies
💩 41:40 From The Jungle to Jack in the Box
💩 44:54 Matt’s advice: get out of your silo
 

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

• Marler Blog: Infant formula botulism outbreak supplier traceback
• Food Safety News coverage of the infant formula botulism outbreak
• CDC outbreak notice: Infant botulism linked to infant formula
• Previous episode: The WanaBana lead-in-cinnamon recall
• Previous episode: Cyclospora outbreak
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg 
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“They see it as an expense until they have some kind of major outbreak. And then suddenly it’s important for a while.” – Francine L. Shaw

“If you’re bored in food safety, you’re really doing something wrong.” – Matt Regusci

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We’d love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the “Don’t Eat Poop!” show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

 Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In India, Santoshi Muriki watched inspectors stay quiet and management toss her proposals in the trash. In the US, she found unannounced audits, stricter rules, and the same old problem: people cutting corners when nobody's watching.

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine sit down with food safety manager Santoshi to compare food safety culture in India and the US, from scheduled-only audits and quiet bribes to the risk-based supplier program she built to get ahead of recalls.

Spoiler alert: Perfect paperwork doesn't prove a strong food safety culture. Sometimes it's the biggest red flag in the building.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Meet Santoshi: From Produce Processing in India to US Warehousing

💩 00:04:15 Food Safety Culture: What People Do When Nobody's Watching

💩 00:08:27 Food Safety in India vs. the US: Traceability, Enforcement & Audits

💩 00:12:19 Being a Woman in Food Safety Leadership in India

💩 00:16:32 Quality vs. Operations

💩 00:21:33 When Food Safety Records Look Too Good to Be True

💩 00:26:17 Building a Risk-Based Supplier Program to Prevent Recalls

💩 00:31:23 Advice From Frank Yiannas & Preparing for FSMA 204

💩 00:33:45 Women in Food Safety & Getting Junior Pros to Conferences

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Connect with Santoshi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakshmi-santoshi-muriki-39974946/ 

Women in Food Safety: https://www.womeninfoods.org/ 

Food Safety Consortium: https://foodsafetyconsortium.org/ 

Santoshi's articles on Food Safety Tech: https://foodsafetytech.com/?s=santoshi 

Check out episode 187 with the Food Safety Girl from Jamaica: https://savvyfs.com/machetes-hostages-jerk-pans-food-safety-inspections-in-jamaica-with-food-safety-girl-allison-richards-episode-187/ 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Food safety culture is what people do when nobody is watching.” – Santoshi Muriki

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Ever had someone sharpen a machete while you work through your inspection checklist? Allison Richards has. With over 15 years of food safety inspections in Jamaica, she has also been told by owners to take her shoes off at the door and has been locked inside a store until they decided the inspection was over.

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine sit down with Allison, better known as The Food Safety Girl. They swap inspection war stories and dig into consumer education, food insecurity, cold chain, canning, street food, and the new Caribbean chapter of Women in Food Safety.

Spoiler alert: Fear doesn't fix food safety. Education, relationships, and informed consumers do.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Meet The Food Safety Girl, Allison Richards

💩 00:04:37 Food Safety Has to Be Fun

💩 00:06:53 Allison's Crazy Food Safety Inspection Stories

💩 00:17:10 Cockroach Popsicles and the Kangaroo Oxtail Rumor 

💩 00:19:50 Food Tourism and Consumers as Agents of Change 

💩 00:23:45 Food Safety Compliance Through Relationships 

💩 00:27:35 Food Insecurity Is More Than Food Production 

💩 00:34:11 Canning, Frozen Plantains, and the Processed Food Debate

💩 00:36:48 Street Food in Jamaica

💩 00:40:07 The Caribbean Chapter of Women in Food Safety

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Connect with Allison Richards on: 

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• TikTok

Learn more about Women in Food Safety: https://www.womeninfoods.org/ 

Check out our episode with Melody Ge on Women in Food Safety: Food Safety Insights From Both Sides of the Audit with Melody Ge, CTO at EAGLE Certification Group | Episode 142

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Consumers are really the agents of change. They're the ones spending. They have the spending power.” – Allison Richards

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Everybody knows the food safety rules. So why do we keep screwing this up? 

After a summer shaped by the Taylor Farms Cyclospora outbreak, Francine and Matt dig into whether the real problem is training, behavior, leadership, or culture. They use Taylor Farms, Taco Bell, and Chipotle to show where accountability really lands and how to win buy-in from the people who make the decisions.

Spoiler alert: Knowing the rules has never been the problem. Getting people to buy in is.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Three Years, 186 Episodes of Food Safety 

💩 00:03:05 Training vs. Behavior vs. Leadership vs. Culture

💩 00:06:47 Taylor Farms Food Safety Culture

💩 00:10:53 The Parent Company Owns the Outbreak

💩 00:14:17 Food Safety Culture from Corporate to Facilities

💩 00:16:41 Hiring for the Right Food Safety Behaviors

💩 00:21:41 Fire Them or Move Them? Positional vs. Personal Influence

💩 00:27:39 Building Food Safety Buy-In From the Middle

💩 00:30:16 Where Food Safety Pros Fail 

💩 00:33:11 Speaking the Language of the CEO, CFO, and COO

💩 00:36:36 Cadence and Dialect Matter in Food Safety Communication

💩 00:44:04 No Food Safety Culture Without Leadership

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg: https://www.amazon.com/dp/081298160X 

Missed last week's conspiracy talk? Catch up here: https://savvyfs.com/largest-cyclospora-outbreak-in-us-history-over-what-the-cdc-isnt-saying-episode-185/ 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

"Everybody knows the rules, so why do we keep screwing this up?" – Francine L. Shaw

"Most of the time you can't play by the rules to change a culture." – Matt Regusci

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

The largest Cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history is over, according to an anonymous federal official who told a reporter before anyone told the public. The CDC's own outbreak page still says "open." In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop, Matt and Francine dig into the numbers nobody's updating and ask a question they've never asked in 185 episodes: is this incompetence, or something worse?

This episode breaks down the outbreak data agencies stopped counting, the consumer trust numbers still falling, and the case for and against a full-blown conspiracy.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Cyclospora Outbreak Declared "Over" 

💩 00:08:21 The Outbreak Numbers Nobody's Updating

💩 00:11:19 Consumer Confidence In Free Fall

💩 00:13:03 Congress Sends 13 Letters, Gets Zero Cyclospora Outbreak Answers

💩 00:16:05 Incompetence or Food Safety Conspiracy

💩 00:20:54 Is The Whole Food System Broken?

💩 00:23:08 Could Someone Be Weaponizing A Broken System?

💩 00:36:45 How Matt Got A Broken Industry To Adopt Compliance

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Check out Bill Marler’s article discussed in this episode:

Unnamed Federal Officials Told the Washington Post They Are About to Declare the Largest Cyclospora Outbreak in U.S. History Over. The National Count Is Still Climbing, 8,137 Confirmed Illnesses Have No Named Source, and Congress Is Still Waiting for an Answer.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

"If you don't count [the victims], they don't matter. They don't exist." – Francine L Shaw

"This is either absolute pure incompetence, or it's a conspiracy, and I could believe in both, or both simultaneously." – Matt Regusci

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Over 30,000 confirmed Cyclospora cases this summer, and the CDC's own math says the real number could be over a million. So why did it take so long to get straight answers about where it came from?

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine tear into the Cyclospora outbreak tied to Taylor Farms lettuce and Taco Bell, and the industry-wide habit of pointing fingers instead of fixing problems. They break down how the contamination likely happened, why Taylor Farms' size makes it nearly impossible to avoid its product, and what Roger Hancock's crisis-communication playbook gets right.

Spoiler alert: the companies that survive an outbreak aren't the ones that dodge blame, they're the ones that communicate fast and own it.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 The Food Safety Blame Game

💩 00:08:51 The Real Cyclospora Outbreak Numbers

💩 00:11:10 How Cyclospora Likely Got Onto The Lettuce

💩 00:13:52 Taylor Farms, Private Label Confusion, And Dodging Blame

💩 00:17:37 Article: What Restaurants Can Learn From The Lettuce Recall

💩 00:21:43 Supply Chain Consolidation And "Too Big To Fail"

💩 00:26:02 Restaurant Recall Plan: Communicate Quickly And Clearly, Or Lose Consumer Trust

💩 00:30:49 Taco Bell Vs. Taylor Farms: A Case Study In Doing It Right

💩 00:33:36 Why Mock Recalls Fall Apart Under Pressure

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

What Restaurants Can Learn From the Lettuce Recall:  https://www.fsrmagazine.com/feature/what-restaurants-can-learn-from-the-lettuce-recall/ 

Episodes with Roger Hancock:

• Creating a Recall-Ready Food Safety Industry | Episode 42
• All Recalls Are Not the Same, But Here’s How You Can Be Ready For When One Comes with Roger Hancock, CEO of Recall InfoLink | Episode 114
• How the FDA Wants YOU to Fix Food Safety Recalls with Roger Hancock, CEO of Recall InfoLink | Episode 126

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Today's topic is the food safety blame game, and the industry has been doing this probably since its inception.” – Matt Regusci

“Can we just stop arguing about whose fault it was and try to figure it out?” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Cyclospora cases have topped 30,000. Eggs, jalapeños, blueberries, and infant formula are all being recalled at the same time. In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine ask the question everyone's TikTok feed is already joking about: is there anything left in the food pyramid that hasn't been recalled?

The episode walks through every major outbreak of the summer, one pathogen at a time, before digging into the supply chain quirk (the terminal market) that makes some recalls nearly impossible to fully contain.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 The New Food Pyramid

💩 00:05:16 2026 Outbreak Update by Pathogen

💩 00:09:21 Driscoll And The PFAS Strawberry Whistleblower

💩 00:11:02 The Egg Recall: 19 Million Eggs

💩 00:14:01 Salmonella In Jalapeños Hits Over Two Dozen States

💩 00:17:28 How Consolidation Created The Terminal Market Workaround

💩 00:21:51 Who's Liable When A Recall Traces Back To A Terminal Market

💩 00:29:52 Starbucks Sandwiches And A Trunk Full Of Egg Salad

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

The FDA Is Investigating 11 Foodborne Outbreaks Right Now — Here’s What to Know About Each One: https://www.foodandwine.com/fda-foodborne-outbreak-investigations-12034027 

CDC Current Outbreaks: https://www.cdc.gov/foodborne-outbreaks/outbreaks/index.html 

Get the Facts: Is the number of food recalls rising? What data shows: https://www.kcra.com/article/us-food-recalls-trend-analysis/73415731 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Francine and I do not lack content, but we would really like it if these outbreaks came out every other month or so, so we could keep up with them.” – Matt Regusci

“We'd be talking about the eggs right now if the lettuce wasn't so bad because the eggs are bad, too. The lettuce is so bad that the eggs are kinda just sliding under the radar.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Nearly 21,000 Americans are confirmed sick with Cyclospora, and three different government sources can't agree on the actual number. When the administration finally addressed it, the best they offered was a joke. In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine break down what accountability was supposed to look like, and the eight concrete fixes still sitting on someone's desk.

They walk through the math behind the conflicting case counts, why the government's own numbers may be undercounting sick Americans by a factor of 10 or more, and the specific policy changes that could stop the next outbreak from disappearing into a spreadsheet.

Spoiler alert: the real number of people sick could be well over a million, and nobody in Washington wants to say so.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Bill Marler's Article: Govt’s Response to Cyclospora

💩 00:06:09 CDC's Three Conflicting Case Counts

💩 00:08:32 The Government’s Flawed Food Safety Advice

💩 00:09:48 The White House's Silence So Far

💩 00:11:15 Extrapolating The Cyclospora Case Count

💩 00:13:42 Eight Recommended Fixes For The FDA

💩 00:19:51 Reviving The Microbiological Data Program

💩 00:24:48 FSMA 204 And The Water Rule

💩 00:29:06 The Economic Cost Of Outbreaks

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Use the code POOP for 25% off the Food Safety Consortium Conference: https://www.eventleaf.com/e/FoodSafetyConsortium 

Check out the article we’re discussing in this episode: 

• Food Safety News: The Fifty-State Cyclospora Count Is 20,927 This Morning. The President Has Said One Thing About It. The Secretary Says It Is Under Control. Here Is What They Should Have Said Instead.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ I do believe the states should be able to make their own laws, but I do think that the federal government should also have laws pertaining to food safety, and those laws should be statistics.” – Matt Regusci

“Food safety's not political. We're talking about people's well-being.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.

👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Over 20,000 people sick, five different versions of the same denial, and a produce giant that helped write the very traceability rules it's now dodging. In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop! Matt and Francine dig into the Cyclospora outbreak tied to Taylor Farms lettuce and the Taco Bell connection everyone's talking about.

They break down how Bill Marler builds a case against a company, why epidemiology (not a lab test) is what actually proves where an outbreak came from, and why Taco Bell's fast, transparent response is saving its reputation while Taylor Farms' spin is making things worse.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Lettuce Ordering Mishaps

💩 00:05:05 Bill Marler's IAFP Article and Cyclospora Update

💩 00:10:32 How Epidemiology Proves an Outbreak's Source

💩 00:13:31 Taco Bell vs. Taylor Farms' Response on Cyclospora

💩 00:17:12 The Jensen Farms Cantaloupe Case

💩 00:21:02 Lettuce Sales Drop 20%

💩 00:22:35 Taylor Farms' Shifting Statements

💩 00:26:38 Taylor Farms Helped Write the Traceability Rules It's Now Sidestepping

💩 00:30:52 Why Taylor Farms Will Be Remembered in This Outbreak

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Use the code POOP for a 25% discount for the Food Safety Consortium Conference: https://www.eventleaf.com/e/FoodSafetyConsortium 

Take a look at the Bill Marler articles mentioned in this episode:

• At IAFP I Was Told It Was American Sewage, Not Mexican Lettuce. That Gets the Parasite Half Right and the Continent Entirely Wrong. 
• Here Is Everything Taco Bell Has Said About Cyclospora. The Company Was Already Pulling Lettuce When It Told Reporters Nothing Had Been Confirmed. 
• Taylor Farms Has Now Written Five Different Versions of the Same Statement. The Newest One Says It Ran Two Thousand Samples and Found Nothing. Ohio Just Added 1,437 Cyclospora Cases in a Week and the Fifty-State Count Crossed Twenty Thousand.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“If you needed a positive test for a product to confirm that product really was sold and consumed and got that person sick, consumers would rarely get compensated for anything. And you don't. In food safety law, epidemiology works.” – Matt Regusci

“I'm astounded at the arguments that people are coming up with about why it's not and why it can't be Taylor Farms when there's so much evidence pointing to the fact that it is.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.

_______

Produced by Ideablossoms

_______