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 FrancineandMatton 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton 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:

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton 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: 

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton 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:

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Food safety culture has been the industry's favorite buzzword for years, but what does it actually look like once you're standing on the production floor? 

Food safety writer and consultant Azure Edwards joins Francine and Matt to talk about the real gap between the policies companies write down and the decisions people make when the pressure is on to get product out the door. This episode covers training, data feedback loops, and where AI genuinely helps versus where it falls short. 

Spoiler alert: the industry's problem was never a lack of data. It's turning that data into something the floor and the C-suite can actually act on.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Introducing Food Safety Consultant Azure Edwards

💩 00:05:07 The Gap Between Training Requirements and Production Floor

💩 00:06:31 Food Safety as a Business Structure

💩 00:09:07 Building Actionable Modules for Food Safety Culture

💩 00:10:44 Food Safety Data Feedback Loops

💩 00:15:29 Why Floor-Level Reality Gets Diluted Before It Reaches Leadership

💩 00:21:16 Getting Food Safety Into Decisions Earlier

💩 00:28:15 Azure’s Career Across Produce, Beef, Seafood, and Lab Testing

💩 00:35:18 Where AI Actually Helps in Food Safety

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Azure Edwards on LinkedIn and on her website (Pacific Blue Horizon Group). 

Azure’s Food Safety Tech Articles: https://foodsafetytech.com/?s=Azure+Edwards 

Azure’s Food Safety News Articles: 

Episode discussing Azure’s article: The Failures of the Food Industry's Pizza and Stick Approach to Food Safety | Episode 154

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ When people are in a situation where they have to make a decision, it's gonna be the one that's gonna give them the result that they need, and oftentimes that's just getting it out the door and keeping their job.” – Azure Edwards

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

The FDA's top produce safety post sat empty for over a year, and when it comes to leafy greens, berries, and bagged salads, that's not a small gap. Now Dr. Donna Garren has the job, arriving with a three-decade resume that reads like a tour of nearly every food trade association in the country. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine ask the question nobody else seems to be asking: does the person in the seat actually change outcomes?

This episode is a deep dive into Garren's career, what the Office of Produce Safety actually does, and whether decades of political skill can move an agency stuck in reactionary mode.

Spoiler alert: She's not bringing a magic wand. She's bringing decades of relationship capital, and that might be exactly what this role needs.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Meet Dr. Donna Garren, FDA's New Director of Produce Safety

00:04:25 Garren's Food Science Roots

00:07:24 Two Decades of Lobbying

00:17:55 What the Office of Produce Safety Actually Does

00:22:57 Garren vs. Her Predecessor: Political Skill vs. Scientific Pedigree

00:28:33 Stakeholder Engagement and Training ( Industry Outreach and Consensus-Building) 

00:34:47 Translating Science for Farmers

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

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“I think the FDA has been in reactionary mode as opposed to preventative mode.” – Matt Regusci

“You can't keep doing what we've been doing. You've gotta do something different.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Fountain soda ice that turns pink overnight. Gas station sushi. A charcuterie board that's been sitting out since noon. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine play a rapid-fire game of "Would You Eat It?" testing real-world food safety risks like bacteria growth, mold contamination, and foodborne illness exposure against their own personal judgment calls.

From the five-second rule to bulging cans of chicken broth (a classic botulism red flag), the hosts debate food expiration dates, cross-contamination, safe food handling, and where their personal risk tolerance lines actually sit. 

Spoiler alert: even two food safety experts have their guilty-pleasure blind spots when it comes to food poisoning prevention (raw cookie dough, anyone?).

In this episode:

00:00:00 Would You Eat It? The Five Second Rule

00:04:06 Gas Station Sushi, Rare Burgers and Childhood Habits

00:06:54 Bacteria Contamination in Self-service Ice Machines and Soda Fountains

00:09:21 How Long Is Too Long in the Temperature Danger Zone?

00:10:59 Sell-by Dates, Expiration Dates and Real Life

00:12:54 Cross Contaminaiton Prevention and Salmonella Risk

00:17:03 Moldy Bread and Wild Mushroom Foraging Risks

00:17:56 Sharing Food and Drinks: Saliva Transfer Risk

00:20:09 Bulging Canned Goods and Botulism

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

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Anything that's been in the car overnight, no. Disgusting. Yuck. There's no redeeming value.” – Matt Regusci

“They can kill you quickly. You grab the wrong mushroom, you'd be dead very quickly.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Nearly 7,000 people are sick, the CDC's own case count can't keep up with what individual states are finding on their own, and six months ago the agency quietly stopped requiring labs to track Cyclospora at all. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine break down how an outbreak this size is unfolding in near-total darkness. This episode covers what Cyclospora actually does to the body, where the current outbreak started, and the funding cuts that gutted the surveillance system meant to catch it. 

When you stop counting the sick, the numbers go down, but the problem doesn't.

In this episode:

00:00:00 The Educated Food Safety Guess That Turned Out to Be True

00:04:46 A Food Safety Project Three Years in the Making

00:08:04 Tracking the Cyclospora Outbreak

00:12:27 What Is Cyclospora? Symptoms, Transmission, and Sources

00:17:53 1,645 Confirmed Cyclospora Cases and Nearly 7,000 Suspected

00:19:03 Suspected Sources and the Taco Bell Connection

00:23:49 CDC Funding Cuts and the FoodNet Tracking Rollback

00:28:28 How a Systemic Contamination Event Actually Happens

00:35:29 The Supplier is Confirmed — It's Taylor Farms

00:47:02 Taco Bell's Statement and IFPA's Pushback on the Produce Link

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

Resources from this episode

Have a look at the articles mentioned in this episode:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“When you have 7,000 potential cases, it is a systemic problem.” – Matt Regusci

“Of course the numbers are gonna decline. They're not counting them.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

A crowded elevator in St. Louis. A stranger's badge. A conversation that led food safety consortium founder Rick Biros to a mother named Dana and to Kayla, her daughter, who died of E. coli O111 in 2007. 

In this third installment of the 2026 Food Safety Consortium preview series on Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt, Francine, and Rick sit with a story that silenced a room of industry veterans, then turn to what's ahead at this year's conference.

This episode blends raw human stakes with a practical look at what's coming to Food Safety Consortium, from AI adoption and allergen transparency to the traceability deadline barreling toward the whole industry.

Spoiler alert: the best food safety conferences aren't built on data alone — they're built on stories that make the stakes impossible to ignore.

In this episode:

00:03:29 The Power of a Food Safety Story

00:06:50 The Elevator Encounter: How Rick Met Dana and Heard Kayla's Story

00:14:30 Food Safety: From a Job to a Career, to a Passion

00:17:02 Business Outcomes From Investing in Food Safety

00:20:59 Allergen Panel featuring Marriott, Universal, Aramark, and Red Lobster

00:22:19 Risk-based Pest Control and the Search For a Produce "Kill Step"

00:23:46 Alpha-gal: The Tick Bite That Can Mean No More Red Meat

00:29:30 AI at the Food Safety Consortium

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Rick

Take a look at Kayla’s story on Food Safety Tech: Food Safety Fate

Use code POOP for 25% off the 2026 Food Safety Consortium

Check out the rest of the series with Rick:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“There wasn't a dry eye in the audience. I read the story, and I just said, ‘Wow, folks, that's why you do what you do.’” – Rick Biros

“These situations are 100% preventable. Somewhere along the way, somebody did something wrong. We are never gonna stop all of them. We're not gonna eradicate all of the foodborne illnesses. But we could certainly reduce them significantly.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Every corporate food safety crisis seems to follow the same script: a somber press conference, a pledge to prioritize safety, a promise to retrain the people at the bottom. But what if the missing ingredient isn't more data or policy — it's story? 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Dr. Darin Detwiler and Gennette Zimmer join Francine and Matt to make the case that food safety culture is built on the stories we tell, and the ones we're afraid to.

They explore how storytelling shapes food safety culture, why credentials don't always equal true expertise, and why so many food safety conferences still don't reflect the people most affected by failures.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Storytelling as the "Mortar" of Food Safety Culture

00:03:57 Darin's 30 Years of Teaching Comes to a Close

00:12:39 Teaching Through Storytelling

00:19:43 Peanut Corp, Baby Formula, Boar's Head: A Pattern of Ignored Warnings

00:24:00 The Corporate Crisis Playbook

00:26:48 The Families' Food Safety Forgets

00:31:00 Storytelling Talk at the Food Safety Consortium

00:40:46 How Storytelling Impacts Audiences

00:44:15 Diversity and Representation in Food Safety

00:49:34 The Three Dimensions of Storytelling

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Dr. Darin Detwiler on LinkedIn

Connect with Gennette Zimmer on LinkedIn

Confessions of a Food Safety A**hole podcast

Take a look at our past episode with Darin and Gennette: What Happens When You Speak Up For Food Safety with Food Safety Icon Dr. Darin Detwiler and His Wife Gennette Zimmer

Get 25% off the 2026 Food Safety Consortium with discount code POOP

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ When the people who are your intended audience do not see themselves reflected in the conversation, that's hard for buy-in.” – Dr. Darin Detwiler

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

A janitorial contractor forged IDs for 336 of his 353 workers, and two dozen of them were children as young as 13, cleaning industrial equipment inside a Perdue Farms slaughterhouse. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine dig into a case that took six years to reach sentencing, exposing how easily child labor laws can be circumvented when a subcontractor controls the paperwork. Along the way, the story opens into a much bigger problem: stolen identities, the real people left cleaning up the damage, and what food companies should be asking their staffing vendors.

Hiring the cheapest staffing vendor might be costing you a lot more than you think.

In this episode:

00:00:57 Child Labor Laws in the Food Safety Industry

00:09:35 A Janitorial Manager’s Guilty Plea for Forged IDs

00:13:17 Why Slaughterhouses are No Place for Kids

00:18:50 Forged Licenses, Birth Certificates, and Stolen Social Security Numbers

00:23:58 Déjà Vu: The 2023 Packer Sanitation Services Case

00:25:54 Identity Theft Victims and Corporate Security Fallout

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the two articles we mentioned in this episode:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“A slaughterhouse is not for children. These places are dangerous for adults. I'm not saying they should be shut down. I'm just saying you have to be 100% aware of your surroundings in a slaughterhouse.” – Matt Regusci

“It's like everything else. You get what you pay for.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Rick Biros, founder of Food Safety Tech and the Food Safety Consortium, is back with our hosts Matt and Francine to make the case that food safety needs a new narrative — one built on ROI and recognition instead of checkbox culture, with buy-in that has to reach all the way up to the C-suite.

This episode of Don't Eat Poop! previews what's new at the 2026 Food Safety Consortium: a storytellers panel with Francine and Darin Detwiler, a brand-new award for food safety teams that can prove their bottom-line impact, and an update on the growing Women in Food Safety community.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Abstract Submissions for the Food Safety Consortium

00:03:55 Storytelling as a Food Safety Leadership Tool

00:07:04 The Real Food Safety Culture Challenge

00:12:19 The ROI of Food Safety

00:21:04 Introducing the Food Safety Tech Excellence Award

00:26:12 Women in Food Safety: Mentorship & Growth

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

Resources from this episode

Use the discount code POOP for 25% off your ticket to the 2026 Food Safety Consortium.

Enter the new Food Safety Tech Excellence Award at foodsafetytech.com 

Take a look at our previous episodes with Rick:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“As a food safety community, we have to start changing the narrative about food safety. This is not just about compliance. Compliance should be the bare minimum. That's not what you shoot for. That's the floor. That should be expected.” – Rick Biros

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

The FIFA World Cup is coming to Atlanta, and with it, up to 10 million visitors, thousands of temporary food vendors, and a food safety infrastructure that is already stretched thin.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Francine and Matt pull apart the logistics of feeding a city-sized surge of international fans, from inspecting pop-up tents in 100-degree heat to the very real norovirus scenario that could turn one food truck into a multi-city outbreak. 

When you pack 10 million people into a city with 28 health inspectors on the clock, something is going to fall through the cracks — the question is how much.

In this episode:

00:00:00 World Cup in Atlanta: The Numbers

00:09:25 Atlanta Health Inspectors’ Impossible Workload

00:16:01 Potential Novovirus Scenarios

00:17:59 Temperature Control and Food Safety Blind Spots

00:25:27 The Reality of Food Safety Inspections

00:28:42 Approved Vendors and Traceability

00:37:39 Atlanta is Preparing for the World Cup

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the article we’re talking about in this episode: Atlanta health inspectors prepare restaurants and vendors for World Cup crowds

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Moral of the story is do not be a jerk to your health inspector.” – Matt Regusci

“The volume of people is one thing. [...] So now they've got to inspect all these temporary vendors that are gonna come in to be permitted for the World Cup.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

The federal government has a plan to overhaul how food chemicals are regulated in America, but the states got there first. In Episode 171 of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine dig into Dr. David Acheson's opinion piece on who should own authority over GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) additives, and whether the proposed FRESH Act is a real solution or just another Band-Aid on a broken system.

From California's Prop 65 to a patchwork of 50 different state regulations, the episode unpacks why consistency matters and why trusting the federal government to deliver it is easier said than done.

Spoiler alert: If the feds can't get it done, third-party certifications will fill the gap. And that's not necessarily the win consumers are hoping for.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Dr. David Acheson: Who Should Own GRAS Authority?

00:07:07 Patchwork Regulation Fails Manufacturers

00:15:55 State vs. Federal Departments

00:20:00 The FRESH Act & Federal Preemption

00:22:21 The Organic Certification Parallel

00:26:52 MAHA & Food Safety Politics

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the article we discussed in this episode: GRAS, additives, chemicals: Who should hold the authority? By Dr. David Acheson

Food Safety Compliance Chaos: FDA Redactions, Conflicts of Interest & Mango Mayhem | Episode 165

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ If Clean Label Project ceased to exist because the federal government did their job really, really well, that would be our goal.” – Matt Regusci

“Certifications have become so watered down. They don't mean what they once did.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Most conferences just recycle the same speakers on the same topics every year. Food Safety Consortium is trying to do something different, and the process behind it is more rigorous than you might expect.

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine sit down with Rick Biros, founder of Food Safety Consortium and Food Safety Tech, to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a food safety conference worth attending. From the call for abstracts to curating diverse panels to scoring speaker submissions on educational value, this is the insider scoop most attendees never get.

Spoiler alert: Great food safety conferences don't happen by accident.

In this episode:

00:00:00 What Makes the Food Safety Consortium Stand Out

00:06:42 Consortium vs. Food Safety Hazards

00:08:29 The Role of Policy in Food Safety Topics Covered

00:10:25 Speaker Selection: Abstracts, Scoring, Curation

00:16:32 The Submission Numbers

00:18:25 Preview: A Global Food Safety Audit Study

00:23:22 How Different Learning Styles Shape Conference Programming

00:27:19 Rick on Life Outside the Food Safety Conference World

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Rick Biros here.

Take a look at our previous episodes with Rick:

Use code POOP for 25% off registration for the Food Safety Consortium.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“How do we go to food safety conferences with the first word food and get such awful food? [...] We take great pride in serving good food.” – Rick Biros

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

_______

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Food safety failures don’t always start with massive outbreaks or nationwide recalls. Sometimes, they start with a bowl of homemade gumbo sitting in a grocery store display case.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine sit down with food safety consultant and Food Safety Exchange host Michelle Wollenzien to unpack decades of retail food safety experience, convenience food risks, meal delivery disasters, food safety culture breakdowns, and why technology is moving faster than food safety compliance.

From improperly reheated meal kits to mystery gumbo in a self-service case, this episode dives deep into the real-world chaos happening behind the scenes of prepared foods, retail grocery operations, airline catering, and modern food delivery systems.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Meet Food Safety Expert Michelle Wollenzien

00:08:02 Convenience Food Safety Risks

00:14:30 The Homemade Gumbo Food Safety Incident

00:20:08 Foodborne Illness Investigations & Determining Liability

00:25:22 Food Safety Culture Is Dividing Companies

00:29:27 Technology Is Outpacing Food Safety Systems

00:33:16 Labour Shortages in Retail Systems

00:39:19 Food Safety Lessons from Living in Mexico

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Michelle here. 

Take a look at our LinkedIn Live with Michelle here.

Check out our episodes with Roger Hancock:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“I am all on board with your innovation, great ideas, feeding the public, making it a near restaurant experience, being able to take this prepared food home or have it delivered, or however you choose to do it. But we have to keep in mind our consumers.” – Michelle Wollenzien

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine dive headfirst into one of the strangest raw milk controversies they’ve seen yet: a Florida dairy selling expensive raw chocolate milk labeled as livestock feed while clearly marketing it to humans.

The hosts unpack the food safety, legal liability, and public health implications behind the “pet food loophole” that many raw milk sellers appear to use. The conversation covers everything from Listeria and E. coli risks in raw dairy to whether warning labels actually protect companies from lawsuits.

Along the way, Matt and Francine ask the question nobody expected to ask in 2026: Who exactly is buying $15 chocolate milk for livestock?

In this episode:

00:00:00 Raw Chocolate Milk Labeled “Not for Human Consumption”

00:09:03 Florida Raw Milk Labeling Loophole

00:11:34 Does a Warning Label Protect Companies from Food Safety Lawsuits?

00:18:36 Contamination Risks in Dairy Operations

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the TikTok we’re talking about in this episode from creator Emmy Makela: https://www.tiktok.com/@emsthegirl/video/7629027231888575774?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7608973359876458015 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Anybody who has livestock knows that they are not providing their livestock with $14.99 half a gallon milk jugs that also have chocolate in them.” – Matt Regusci

“I wonder how many people are buying products that say not for human consumption and don't even realize it.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Another cantaloupe recall. Another round of questions about why the food industry keeps making the same mistakes — and whether the tools to fix them are already sitting on the shelf, ignored.

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Francine and Matt dig into a Salmonella cantaloupe recall, the science of why cantaloupes are such a high-risk product, and a sanitizer that's been EPA- and FDA-approved for years but still can't get traction in the industry. Plus: Francine's heading to the Food Safety Summit to talk norovirus in retail, and the stories from the field are exactly what you'd expect from Don’t Eat Poop.

Spoiler alert: The solutions often exist. The problem is getting a risk-averse, relationship-driven industry to actually use them.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Novovirus in Retail

00:06:57 Cantaloupe Salmonella Recall Breakdown

00:11:58 Hypochlorous Acid: The Sanitizer the Industry is Ignoring

00:19:04 Chemical Distribution & Conflict of Interest

00:30:25 Norovirus Incidents in Grocery Stores

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

Resources from this episode

Is It Time for a “Kill Step” for Pathogens on Produce at Retail? By Eric Moorman and Hal King

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“You can't really sanitize or get rid of all the potential pathogens on the outside of a cantaloupe because of the webbed outside.” – Matt Regusci

“There's something out there that works that nobody's talking about, and there's such a resistance to this product.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

If you thought chicken was the “safe” option on the menu, this episode of Don’t Eat Poop! might ruffle your feathers. 

Matt and Francine dig into a bizarre (and under-the-radar) food safety incident out of Spain, where children developed allergic-like reactions not from allergens, but from biogenic amines formed due to poor cold chain management. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone in restaurant food safety, food safety training, or navigating food safety regulations. We break down the science, the risks, and what this means for foodborne illness prevention worldwide.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Get to Know Your Food Safety Podcast Hosts

00:11:00 Biogenic Amine Outbreak in Spain

00:14:47 Poor Cold Chain Management in Foodservice

00:17:56 Why Symptoms Looked Like Allergies

00:21:10 Temperature Control Matters

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the articles mentioned in this episode:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“This is a food safety issue that can happen with a break in the cold chain.” – Matt Regusci

“ Spoiled-smelling meat is not the only concern. Not all bad meat stinks.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

What do mangoes, government redactions, and conspiracy-level blacked-out reports have in common? 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine peel back the layers (and redact absolutely nothing) on a bizarre FDA Salmonella mango investigation that’s about as useful as a blank HACCP plan.

From laughably censored outbreak reports to serious concerns about food safety compliance, conflicts of interest, and transparency failures, this episode dives deep into the cracks in our food safety systems. If you’ve ever wondered how the industry is supposed to improve when critical data is hidden, or how advisory committees operate without clear disclosure rules, this one’s for you.

Spoiler alert: You can’t fix what you can’t see. And right now? There’s a lot we’re not seeing.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Food Safety Podcast Recap

00:08:22 Redacted FDA Salmonella Mango Report

00:13:04 FDA Conflict of Interest Failures

00:20:42 Still No FDA Conflict-of-interest Policy

00:23:01 Real Accountability in Food Safety Regulations

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the articles we discuss in this episode:

Check out our episode with Rick Biros: 15 Years of Food Safety Tech: Food Safety Compliance vs Reality with Rick Biros | Episode 161

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“The files for the FDA look similar to the Epstein files, and the GAO is asking FDA, whatcha gonna do about conflicts of interest?” – Matt Regusci

“This is like policies and procedures. If you're not gonna implement them, don't write them.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

What happens when your sweet treat doubles as a pharmaceutical experiment? 

In this wildly bizarre (but very real) episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine unwrap a shocking chocolate recall involving undeclared active drug ingredients. This episode explores the intersection of food safety compliance, food fraud, and the risks of buying “mystery” products online. It’s funny, it’s alarming, and it’s a crystal-clear reminder that when it comes to food safety regulations, you really don’t know what you’re getting unless proper controls are in place.

In this episode:

00:00:00 “Aphrodisiac Chocolate” Recalled

00:04:36 Health Risks Explained

00:09:09 Undeclared Substances in Supplements and Sports Products

00:14:17 Food Fraud and Dosage Confusion

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

Resources from this episode

Check out the article we’re talking about in this episode: Chocolate products recalled because of undeclared male enhancement drugs

Have a listen to the episodes we mentioned in this episode:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“There's so many things that are wrong with this because you're consuming a drug disguised as a candy and you don't know the dosage.” – Matt Regusci

“Most people don't understand that a lot of that stuff is not FDA-approved. They assume because they can buy it, it's safe.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this eye-opening (and slightly stomach-turning) episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine dive headfirst into a real-life case of botulism caused by fermented fish and why “gut health trends” can go dangerously wrong.

What started as a health-conscious bite of fermented “swordfish” turned into a near-death experience for a 24-year-old woman, highlighting critical gaps in foodborne illness prevention and consumer awareness.

From ancient food preservation methods to modern-day food safety compliance, this episode explores how traditional practices can clash with today’s expectations and why HACCP principles aren’t just for professionals anymore.

Spoiler: if it smells like death, maybe don’t eat it.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Botulism from Homemade Fermented Swordfish

00:04:05 Escalating Symptoms: Difficulty Swallowing, Paralysis

00:07:00 What Fermented “Swordfish” Actually Is

00:12:24 Cultural Food and Food Safety

00:19:15 Safe Alternatives for Gut Health

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

Resources from this episode

Food Safety Compliance in Home Kitchens: The Hidden Risks of Social Media Food Businesses | Episode 162

How to Clean Your Refrigerator Properly: This is Food Safety at Home | Episode 159

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“If your choices are occasionally getting foodborne illness or starving to death, I will choose the former over the latter, but if I'm not starving, I'm not going to choose option number one.” – Matt Regusci

“There are people who, if they do live, they don't completely recover from botulism. You live with lifelong ramifications from this illness.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

If you’ve ever been tempted by homemade dumplings on Facebook Marketplace or the viral “pink sauce” on TikTok, this episode might make you pause mid-scroll. 

In this eye-opening (and slightly terrifying) episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine dig into the booming world of home-based food businesses and the massive food safety compliance gaps lurking behind those mouthwatering posts. From underground meal prep hustles to kids selling home-cooked food at school, this episode blends humor with hard truths about food safety regulations, HACCP principles, and the real risks of buying food from strangers online.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Buying Unregulated Food From Facebook Marketplace

00:06:58 Knowing Your Food Source Matters

00:08:58 Dutch Home Caterer Survey Shocker

00:13:10 Food Safety on Social Media

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the Food Safety News article we discussed in this episode: Home-based cooks lack awareness of food safety rules

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“There are regulations, but if the entrepreneurs don't know that there are regulations and are just operating under the radar, then there aren't regulations.” – Matt Regusci

“So many people assume if you can buy it, it's safe.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine welcome industry veteran Rick Biros to talk about 15 years of Food Safety Tech and the Food Safety Consortium. We also get the chance to hear about Rick's new upcoming conference, Food Safety Hazards.

From cockroach-laced product horror stories (yes, really) to a deep dive into 15 years of industry evolution in food safety regulations, we unpack one of the most uncomfortable truths in food safety compliance: just because you’re “within compliance” doesn’t mean your food is safe. It’s clear that the industry still has a long way to go in truly protecting consumers.

In this episode:

00:00:00 15 Years of Food Safety Tech

00:10:46 FSMA Success Debate

00:15:35 Food Safety Culture Isn’t New

00:22:37 Benchmarking and Metrics

00:25:59 New Food Safety Hazards Conference

00:35:54 The Broken U.S. Food Safety System

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Rick here.

Use the discount code poop for a 25% discount at the Food Safety Hazards Conference 2026 (April 20-22) and the Food Safety Consortium (October 23-26).

Take a look at the white paper we discussed in this episode: Integrating the Fragmented United States Federal Food Safety System into a Food Protection System

Read the article Rick mentioned at the end of this episode: Outbreak Investigation of E. coli O157:H7 in Raw Cheddar Cheese. Was it from RAW FARM or Not??

Listen to our previous conversations with Rick:

Behind the Scenes at the Food Safety Consortium with Rick Biros: Conference Culture, Compliance & Community | Episode 123

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Where this industry needs to go is to turn food safety and quality into a financial benefit to food and beverage companies.” – Rick Biros

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine dig into the rising trend of edible insects and lab-grown meat, and what it means for food safety compliance, foodborne illness prevention, and regulatory frameworks.

From cricket protein powder to 3D-printed steak, this isn’t sci-fi anymore—it’s on your dinner plate. But are regulators ready? Are you ready? And most importantly, what happens when something goes wrong in a sterile lab environment?

Let’s just say: this episode gets crunchy.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Insect Protein and Lab-Grown Meat

00:08:57 Global Food Safety Regulation Challenges

00:13:05 Facebook Marketplace Food Sales

00:19:15 Consumer Trust Issues

00:22:28 Future Food Trends and Concerns

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the Food Safety News article we’re talking about today: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/03/insects-and-cell-based-food-on-radar-of-food-regulators/ 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Say this does get to a point at which we figure out how to scale printing meat in a lab and it tastes just like meat, what food safety risks come from that in the future? I guess to be determined.” – Matt Regusci

 I can't imagine thinking I'm craving a cicada. I'm craving a chocolate-covered cockroach today.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

If your fridge could talk, would it confess to crimes against food safety? 

In this hilariously relatable episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine tackle a topic every food safety professional knows, but many still neglect at home: cleaning out the refrigerator. From expired blue cheese dressing with a personality of its own to mystery leftovers that defy identification, this episode dives into food safety compliance at home, proper storage habits, and the real risks of ignoring expiration dates.

Spoiler: your condiments are probably guilty.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Deep Cleaning Your Refrigerator

00:04:59 The Hidden Danger of Condiments

00:14:43 Safe Thawing Practices

00:23:46 FIFO: First In, First Out

00:27:26 Fridge Sanitation Schedules

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

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ When you're cleaning out leftovers, and your question isn't, 'What is this?’ but ‘What was this?’ that’s not good.” – Matt Regusci

“ Folks, it's time to clean out your refrigerator and get rid of those condiments from last summer. Get rid of them!” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Food safety regulations can sometimes feel like a bureaucratic maze, but behind the scenes, regulators, inspectors, and food businesses are all trying to accomplish the same thing: keeping people from getting sick.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine sit down with Steven Mandernach from AFDO (the Association of Food and Drug Officials) to unpack the complex world of food safety inspections, regulatory collaboration, and the future of food safety compliance.

From government shutdowns affecting inspectors to the evolving relationship between state regulators, the FDA, and food businesses, the conversation dives deep into how the system really works and where it could work better.

In this episode:

00:00:00 The AFDO, FDA, and USDA

00:06:27 Food Code Interpretation Gaps

00:11:12 Food Facility Inspection Realities

00:22:07 Industry and Regulator Partnerships

00:34:32 Food Safety Workforce Challenges

00:47:02 Compensation And Staffing

00:51:38 The Role of Lawyers in Food Safety

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Steven here.

Listen to our last conversation with Steven:

Rethinking How Things Are Done to Solve Food Safety Problems with Steven Mandernach from AFDO | Episode 90

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“I'm not sure it's a science major. I think we could find someone with critical thinking skills, good time management, and who communicates well, and I could turn them into a good food safety inspector.” – Steven Mandernach

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine sit down with leadership powerhouse Tia Glave, co-founder of Catalyst Food Leaders, to discuss the one thing most food safety professionals overlook: culture and behavior change.

If your HACCP plan is flawless but your team still rolls their eyes at food safety training, this episode is for you.

Because here’s the hard truth: food safety compliance isn’t a paperwork problem. It’s a people problem.

Recorded at the Food Safety Consortium, Tia explains why technical brilliance won’t move your organization forward unless you can explain the why in a way that actually resonates, from preventing foreign material contamination to navigating food safety audits for foodservice.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Why Culture Drives Food Safety

00:05:17 Behavior Change Takes Time

00:11:46 Connecting To Personal Values

00:19:01 Budgets, Strategy, And Buy-In

00:27:57 Traceability And Change Management

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

Resources from this episode

Connect with Tia here. 

Past episodes with Tia:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“I don't need to be the voice of food safety culture as a food safety professional. Everyone knows I care about it. I need that maintenance tech to be talking about it. I need the finance team to be talking about it in a meeting. I need someone else who I didn't even know heard me to be talking about it in their circles. That's what we need. We need that commitment, and you get it through connecting to their values.” – Tia Glave

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are discussing Francine's favorite virus: Norovirus. 

It's no surprise this foodborne illness made an appearance at the 2026 Winter Olympics, and it's also no surprise that our hosts had a thing or two to say about this super spreader event.

Tune in for some laughs, a shortage of condoms, all you need to know about the super bug that is Norovirus, and more.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Matt's life fostering medically fragile kids

0:07:05 Olympics + free condoms = more Norovirus?

0:14:53 The Poop Cruise: the cruiseship from hell

0:18:26 The science behind the spread of Norovirus 

0:26:37 Francine's Norovirus outbreak care packages

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

Resources from this episode

WatchTrainwreck: Poop Cruise.

Catch up withEpisode 152, where we talk about the economics of foodborne illnesses.

ReadThe Conversationarticle Matt and Francine refer to in this episode.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Norovirus is like a super bug, man. It has good survival skills. I gotta hand it to Norovirus. It is a maximum survivalist. So, making sure to thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water is essential.” – Matt Regusci

“ 2,800 athletes were there the first week. Now, they've been handing out these free condoms since 1988, and I wonder if there's a correlation between the close contact and the Norovirus.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are celebrating the podcast's 3 Year Anniversary with a blast from the past: the salmon in the dishwasher, the podcast's first inside joke.

If you've been listening for a while, you probably know that cooking your salmon in the dishwasher is a BAD idea. Now, tune in to discover all the other things that people put in their dishwashers and what experts have to say about it.

Thank you for listening, and here’s to another year of the Don’t Eat Poop! Podcast.

In this episode:

0:00:00 A party trick for your Super Bowl watch party

0:07:18 Why cooking in a dishwasher is a BAD idea

0:15:36 Part 1: Strangest things put in dishwashers

0:19:07 Questionable ways to thaw poultry and more

0:23:56 Part 2: Strangest things put in dishwashers

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

Resources from this episode

Catch up with our "fun" episode from a couple of weeks ago,Episode 153.

Watch the Netflix series aboutthe Australian lady who killed in-laws with Beef Wellington.

Learn more about Norovirus at the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics onthis LinkedIn post by Francine.

Find the full Consumer Reports Matt and Francine are referring tohere.

Check out Francine’s bookWho Watches the Kitchen?for more crazy stories people shared during training.

 Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Appliances are designed to perform specific tasks quickly and efficiently, so take advice from the people who make the dishwashers and leave [the food] to the cooking ranges and ovens. Amen.” – Matt Regusci

“ When I was training, I had people tell me that they thawed their poultry in the dryer. Can you imagine a turkey tumbling in your clothing dryer?” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are highlighting Azure Edwards's latest opinion piece on Food Safety News, "The food industry’s training problem is the system it keeps paying for".

She raises crucial points that our hosts have also been talking about for a while, such as the importance of having a strong food safety culture, the real financial impact of weak training and systems, how audits and certifications are not enough, and more.

In this episode:

0:00:00 The food safety industry's training failures

0:08:45 How food safety culture weakens under pressure

0:14:14 What is missing from food safety training 

0:18:05 The risks of transactional food safety

0:20:19 What makes a company successful long-term

0:27:03 The real importance of ethics and integrity

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

Resources from this episode

Read theFood Safety News opinion piecebyAzure Edwardsthat Matt and Francine refer to in this episode.

For a look into the real cost of food safety failures, catch up withEpisode 152.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ I love that she uses the temporary workers and the seasonal workers as a stress test for your food safety culture. If there's an issue with your facility during these peak times, it's not your seasonal and temporary workers that are the issue. It's your systems that are the issue.” – Matt Regusci

“ I've always said the one thing that nobody can take from you is integrity. You do that yourself.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are taking a detour from food poisoning to actual poison in food. 

Our hosts hadn't done any episodes about people getting intentionally killed with food in a long time, and Francine, our resident murder-mystery aficionado, made sure it got back in the lineup.

Tune in for the Thanksgiving from hell case, where a mother poisoned her children's wine, and a throwback to the poison mushroom beef Wellington case.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Someone did kill their loved ones this time

0:03:53 The poison mushroom beef Wellington murders

0:07:49 How a mother killed her family on Thanksgiving

0:15:09 Premeditation and getting away with murder

0:21:21 Our fascination with how criminal minds work

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

Resources from this episode

Learn all about the Thanksgiving from Hell casehere.

Hear more about the Australian lady who tried to kill her in-laws with beef Wellington onEpisode 38.

In case you needed a reminder, catch up withEpisode 95 | Don’t Kill Your Loved Ones During the HolidaysandEpisode 146 | Seriously, Don’t Kill Your Loved Ones During the Holidays.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“To put this chemical in wine and give it to your children and one of their children's boyfriends at a Thanksgiving dinner. That is a whole new level of evil to me.” – Matt Regusci

“ She's a restaurateur. How much has she potentially gotten away with in 20 years? That is scary. If she's willing to do this to her own children, who else might she be willing to do this to, potentially?” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are talking about some very high, but also very preventable, costs: those resulting from foodborne illnesses.

Our hosts are unpacking the Cost Estimates of Foodborne Illnesses data for 2023, released by the USDA in December 2025. You'll learn the real cost of diseases such as Salmonella, Norovirus, Listeria, Botulism, and more.

In this episode:

0:03:38 Norovirus: largest number of cases

0:08:54 Salmonella: greatest overall cost

0:11:19 E.coli, Botulism, Vibrio: surprising numbers

0:13:07 Listeria: fewer cases, deadly costs

0:23:10 How to get buy-in for food safety initiatives

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

Resources from this episode

Read theMarler Blog articleMatt and Francine refer to in this episode.

Check out Francine'sQSR Magazine 2018 article on the cost of foodborne illness.

Catch up withEpisode 144 | Apparently, a Little Salmonella in Poultry is Okay. But Should It Really Be?

Also listen toEpisode 122 | Listeria’s Lasting Damage: A Food Safety Wake-Up Call

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ You have an easier chance of getting a one on a roll of a dice than surviving Listeriosis. It is like one in three, one in four, depending upon the outbreak. So you have a 25% to 33% chance of death when you get Listeriosis. Not good.” – Matt Regusci

“ Those are the things that people don't think about. They see these numbers. These are numbers on our screens at this point. People see numbers, and they hear statistics [but] these are human lives.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are back from their quick holiday break and are ready to tackle the brand-new 2026 food pyramid.

With their special brand of humor, they walk through each of the four iterations of the visual American dietary guidelines over the years and what they mean for Americans.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Holiday break update and misplaced keys

0:11:07 The 1992-2005 food pyramid and its impacts

0:17:21 The confusing 2005-2011 MyPyramid

0:19:37 The 2011-2026 MyPlate (not actually a pyramid)

0:23:28 The 2026 upside-down food pyramid

0:34:32 Will this change how people eat?

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

Resources from this episode

Catch up withEpisode 146 | Seriously, Don’t Kill Your Loved Ones During the Holidays, where Matt talked about his dread over traveling with his entire family over the holidays.

Check outFrank Yiannas' LinkedIn post with the evolution of the food pyramid over time.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ I do not disagree with this new pyramid. It's basically my diet. What I do disagree with is [that] it doesn't make it easy for someone to look at this and go, 'Oh, this is how I am supposed to eat.' There's nothing really easy about it.” – Matt Regusci

“'0 5 to '11 looks like they just took the colors of the rainbow, tossed them together in a mountainous type setting, and threw a bunch of food at the bottom of it.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by produce safety veteran Humberto Maldonado, the Director of Safety and Compliance at Organically Grown Company, straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025.

Humberto shares lessons from his 20+ years in produce safety. Starting out with the 2003 Hepatitis A green onion outbreak at the beginning of his food safety career, to his time at Driscoll's Mexico navigating auditors and growers, and his newer role.

Get ready for an episode packed with food safety wisdom and practical ways to build a culture of food safety from the field all the way to the C-suite.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Audits and certifications at Driscoll's Mexico

0:10:29 The 2003 Hepatitis A outbreak in green onions

0:16:17 Beyond audits to a good culture of food safety

0:25:48 Humberto's work at Organically Grown Company

0:29:57 Food safety culture from field to C-suite

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

Resources from this episode

Read about the 2003 Hepatitis A Outbreak Associated with Green Onionshere.

Learn more about theOrganically Grown Company.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“One of the pushbacks I always received was, 'This is too complex for the growers to understand. This is too complex for the harvest crew people to understand.' That's not true. We are the ones making things complex. You can explain complex things in a simple way, so keep it simple.” – Humberto Maldonado

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 withHumberto,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are talking about some even more frustrating news on the FDA's traceability rule, FSMA 204.

Back in April of 2025, the implementation of the rule was pushed off yet again, giving the food industry 2.5 years to become fully compliant.

Everything changed after the longest government shutdown in US history, though, because the new funding bill blocks FMSA 204. That's, unfortunately, expected, since some of the senators who ended the stalemate received funds from food industry lobbyists.

Tune in for a breakdown of the current situation with US food traceability.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Food traceability policies are being gutted

0:11:17 Who's behind the death of FSMA 204 and why

0:17:54 Why food traceability is extremely complicated

0:23:38 Politicians, integrity, and helping people

0:30:27 What will happen with FSMA 204

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

Resources from this episode

Read theMarler Blog articleMatt and Francine refer to in this episode.

Listen toEpisode 148, where we talk about the huge increase in hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illness.

Catch up withEpisode 109from April 2025, where we questioned whether or not FSMA 204 would ever actually be implemented.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ I think [FSMA 204 is] dead. I think there's going to be some companies that are going to do it, but without the government's push to do this, it will not happen across the board, which means it won't happen.” – Matt Regusci

“ So, let me tell you what I love about this. The National Restaurant Association, they make all their money promoting and advocating for food safety. That's how they earned all that money that they donated to lobby against it.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are looking back before they look forward in this new year. They are unpacking an article from February 2025 that shares some worrisome stats about foodborne illness, outbreaks, hospitalizations, and deaths from contaminated food in 2024, all of which increased significantly from the previous year.

In this episode:

0:00:00 When distances are relative

0:07:07 A recap of food recalls in 2024

0:13:43 Key findings on foodborne illnesses

0:18:06 If you don't test for it, it's not there

Tune back in next week for the episode where our hosts talk about the article on how the government is looking to shut down some key food safety acts and rules.

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

Resources from this episode

Read theFood for Thought 2025article Matt and Francine refer to in this episode.

Correction:chickens fly at 175 birds per minute, not 175 miles per hour, in US poultry processing plants. You can learn more about these worrisome speeds onEpisode 110.

As for the acceptable levels of Salmonella in poultry, you can check outEpisode 144.

For a Recap of 2024’s Major Outbreaks with Bill Marler, listen toEpisode 92, and for one of the major outbreaks from the first half of 2025, catch up withEpisode 129.

Hear more about what it's like to get listeria and survive it in the gut-wrenchingEpisode 122.

Learn the basics of the ByHeart Infant Botulism Outbreak linked to their baby formula, check outEpisode 147.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ If we're looking at why 13 [outbreaks] accounted for 98% of the hospitalizations and deaths. It's because 22% of the recalls came from Listeria. That is crazy.” – Matt Regusci

“ It's mind-boggling that they are shutting down food safety programs one after another, agencies, and just different things throughout the course of the year, and foodborne illnesses are increasing.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are unpacking what's shaping up to be one of the worst outbreaks of 2025: the ByHeart Infant Botulism Outbreak linked to their baby formula, previously Clean Label Project (CLP) certified.

There have been other cases over the years, and, unfortunately, this just happens to be the most recent one. We need to find a way to curb this. 

That's why our hosts are sharing not only the details of this international outbreak, but also possible solutions and straightforward practices that food producers can implement to effectively prevent outbreaks.

In this episode:

0:01:07 What CLP does and doesn't test for and why

0:10:48 How Matt helped companies through outbreaks

0:15:27 How the industry can truly prevent outbreaks

0:23:23 How to ensure your product is pathogen-free

0:26:42 Why baby formula standards must be stricter

0:39:30 One of the worst outbreaks of 2025

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

Resources from this episode

Learn all about Clean Label Project in our interview with Jaclyn Bowen, the previous Executive Director, inEpisode 101.

Stay up-to-date on this outbreakhere.

Read Bill Marler'sarticle on Operation Stork Speed.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ The only 100% way that you are not going to get somebody pregnant or an STD is: don't have sex. For the advice for the industry, the only way to be 100% sure that you are not going to have pathogens in your product is to test them all. ” – Matt Regusci

“ This isn't the only case. [...] This just happens to be the most current. Now we're giving [babies] poisoned food, and it's the only food they're receiving. It's detrimental, and we need to find a way to curb this.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, food safety experts Matt and Francine are once again trying to convince you not to kill your loved ones over the holidays. 

Since last year's episode may not have been enough, they're back this year with ways to protect your family from foodborne illness this holiday season.

Tune in to a chaotic episode that's full of life and gratitude, our hosts' unique sense of humor in full force, a boatload of pre-travel anxiety, and some crazy food safety stories.

Disclaimer: If you're a social worker working with CPS or foster care and you end up listening to this, please do not take what Matt's saying at face value. He is indeed joking and/or being sarcastic.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Holiday plans and flying with a family of 15

0:11:14 A rough year and a shout-out from Francine

0:13:05 Thermometers, wipes, and sleeping aids

0:17:02 Holiday food safety fails and how to avoid them

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

Resources from this episode

To learn more about the woman who tried to kill her ex’s family with Beef Wellington, catch up withEpisode 38 | Don’t Cook Salmon in the Dishwasher!

Want to read the story about the turkey that flew during Thanksgiving and other captivating, crazy food safety stories? Make sure to check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?

Read our complete guide onHow to Not Kill Your Family Over the Holidays.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ I bet that stuffing was absolutely amazing, sitting there permeating in all the juices overnight. [...] So, you taste all the other flavors, but not salmonella. You taste all the other flavors coming back up again after you get salmonella.” – Matt Regusci

“ I got the flu a lot at Thanksgiving when I was a kid. [...] When I say the flu, we all know the flu now isn't vomiting and diarrhea.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, food safety experts Matt and Francine are talking about a bill introduced to the Senate earlier this year, the “Direct Interstate Retail Exemption for Certain Transactions Act of 2025.” This DIRECT Act would allow direct-to-consumer online sales of state-inspected meat and poultry across state lines.

Tune in as our hosts unpack the proposed legislative changes, the potential benefits, and what it would mean for the USDA, as well as the possible food safety risks, traceability issues, and other challenges.

In this episode:

0:06:17 Breaking down the DIRECT Act

0:14:33 Will traceability get better?

0:17:37 USDA vs. State inspections and exemptions

0:23:33 Will enforcement be stronger?

27:05 The big issue with the current consolidation

30:5 Where our meat imports come from

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

Resources from this episode

Read theFood Safety News articleMatt and Francine refer to in this episode.

Hear the new and exciting things over at Food Safety News onEpisode 143.

Catch up with the Pre-Made Pasta Meals Listeria outbreak withEpisode 141.

Learn all about how fast the chickens fly at a poultry plant withEpisode 110, as well as how upset the poultry industry is over a salmonella-filled report withEpisode 144.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“This is a chink against not just the USDA's armor of the monopoly, but it's also a chink against the top meat producers in their monopoly armor. They don't want small meat companies competing against them. Not at all.” – Matt Regusci

“ I'm all about helping the smaller farmers, the smaller businesses. I am all about doing whatever we can do to support them. I live in an area that that is what we are. But we need to make sure that we do it safely.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are, unfortunately, talking once more about poultry and salmonella.

They are unpacking the concerning Farm Forward Salmonella and Foodborne Disease Report released in October 2025. The results showed elevated levels of salmonella contamination in grocery store poultry samples.

Tune in to discover why poultry-related salmonella infections persist in the US, including how USDA standards fall short, the industry pushback, and what can be done to reverse this situation.

In this episode:

0:00:00 The report that found salmonella in poultry

0:09:47 The unmet USDA salmonella contamination limits

0:11:58 How poultry should follow other industries' standards

0:17:56 Lessons from the US beef industry and the EU

0:22:09 The safe temperature to cook poultry

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

Resources from this episode

Read theLA Times articleMatt and Francine refer to in this episode and the originalFarm Forward Report.

Francine'sLinkedIn Postwith a picture of turkey packaging that showed improper handling procedures. 

Just in case you need a refresher on how to safely handle poultry, catch up withEpisode 73 | Don’t Wash Your Chicken, Seriously.

Watch Bill Marler and Dr. Darin Detwiler’s Emmy award-winning documentary,Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ While I'm not for ending commercial chicken farming, I am for ending salmonella in one-third or over 400,000 of the cases annually in consumers. You can be for commercial farming and also against poisoning people.” – Matt Regusci

“ For the industry to take this attitude is just, I believe, irresponsible on their part. It shows, in my opinion, just a total lack of disregard for consumers because they've got the ability to correct it. They're choosing not to [deal with salmonella].” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by two special guests: Bill Marler, who you already know as the nation's leading foodborne illness attorney, and his wonderful son-in-law, Peter Gustafson.

But this isn't a family reunion; they are here to share some very exciting news about Food Safety News (FSN), the online newspaper that has been keeping everyone who cares about the safety of our food supply informed about critical food safety concerns for the past 16 years.

For all those years, Bill alone funded the publication, but that is not sustainable. Thankfully, Peter recently joined the team as a Fractional Executive Director of FSN, and they're figuring out how to change that.

Tune in to discover the future of FSN and the changes that will allow it to not only outlast Bill, but to take the food safety journalism we know and love to the next level.

In this episode:

0:05:58 The history and evolution of FSN

0:11:47 The importance of making FSN self-sustaining

0:19:48 The 1st solution: Google Ads and nonprofit status

0:22:50 The age of AI and the need for a new solution

0:26:27 What the new FSN+ membership will look like

0:31:43 Becoming sustainable to go above and beyond

Resources from this episode

Be one of the first to become an FSN+ member and lock in the founding member pricing atfoodsafetynews.com/membership. 

Read some deep Bill Marler angst in theMarler Blog.

Read Francine'sopinion pieces in Food Safety Newsthrough the years.

Check outthe Food Safety News Merch Store.

Catch up with past Bill Marler Don't Eat Poop! episodes:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ It's not a desire to cut back. It's a desire to build. It's a desire to make something sustainable, better, and more useful for the food safety public.” – Bill Marler

“I think this year we're averaging just over 400,000 page views per month, whereas last year we averaged 1.6 million pages per month [...] So as you can imagine, that [FSN's ad] revenue came down quite a bit.” – Peter Gustafson

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 withBill,Peter,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Melody Ge, the Founder of Women in Food Safety and Chief Technical Officer at EAGLE Certification Group, straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025.

They've been wanting to have Melody on the show for years, and it's finally worked out. There's a cumulative 70 years of experience among them in this episode, and you'll hear the stories that come along with it.

Learn more about the 5-year-old Women in Food Safety community, which has recently become a full-fledged nonprofit. Get the lay of the land in the food safety auditing world, learn what's missing, and discover how Melody, who has been both an auditor and an auditee, and her team at EAGLE are working to change that reality.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Melody’s 20-year career path

0:04:04 Growing Women in Food Safety

0:07:40 The biggest challenge for food safety pros

0:12:43 Food safety audit industry issues

0:15:53 Solutions for auditing, and the industry's future

0:31:45 How to help pipeline future good auditors

0:40:52 Melody's Food Safety Consortium reflections

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

Resources from this episode

Learn more about and join the Women in Food Safety through theirLinkedInorwebsite.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Regardless, it's either the auditee or the auditor. We all want food safety. This is a common goal, and I never doubted that before. It's the approach and the position we're in [that are] very different. So, how can we help each other and make the most value out of it?” – Melody Ge

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 withMelody,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are, unfortunately, talking about a deadly multi-state Listeria outbreak… again. This time, the culprit is surprisingly hiding in pasta.

Tune in as they break down the recent outbreak, which has a 26% death rate, and has led to recalls of pre-made pasta meals across stores, including Walmart, Kroger, and Trader Joe's.

Discover the only way to fix Listeria, what foodborne illnesses truly mean for their victims, and how outrageously our government and institutions have been handling these realities.

In this episode:

0:00:00 A deadly and unexpected Listeria outbreak in pasta

0:15:18 Victims aren't getting the information they need

0:18:41 The only solution for Listeira, food safety's #1 enemy

0:21:17 The harsh realities and ugly effects of foodborne illnesses

0:25:10 The stories of the victims that hit our hosts the hardest

0:30:15 The government's mantra: "We ignore it, so it goes away"

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

Resources from this episode

Check out the Food Safety News article our hosts are referring to, "More deaths reported in Listeria outbreak linked to pre-made pasta meals."

Watch Dr. Darin Detwiler and Bill Marler’s Emmy award-winning documentary,Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.

Catch up withEpisode 122, where we learn the story of a man who survived Listeriosis but lost everything else.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Listeria is a big deal, and the only way to fix Listeria is having a food safety culture that allows you to test for this and really find and destroy this bug. This is the enemy, and every single facility in the world needs to view Listeria as the number one enemy.” – Matt Regusci

“ We're never gonna stop all of the foodborne illnesses. That's impossible. But they can certainly be minimized, and that's what's so frustrating, is none of them have to happen, but they're all preventable. Nobody should ever die from eating food.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

It's that time of year again! In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts, Matt and Francine, have just returned from the Food Safety Consortium (FSC) 2025 and are sharing all about their experience among the best people in the food safety industry.

In this recap, you'll hear about why the FSC is the best food safety conference for networking, how the Consortium has shaped Matt and Francine's careers and podcast through the years, why they recorded fewer interviews this time around, and more.

Celebrate the podcast's recent #1 spot in its category on iHeartRadio, and regenerate your faith in the industry after this episode.

In this episode:

0:00:00 The best food safety conference for networking

0:04:25 What to expect from this year's interviews

0:10:43 Our sense of humor and negative reviews

0:14:53 What makes the FSC powerful and unique

0:20:57 Learning from food safety powerhouses

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

Resources from this episode

Stay up to date on all things Food Safety Consortium for next year’s editionhere. Use the code POOP for a discount when you register.

Catch up with the two FSC 2025 interviews that are already live:

Learn more aboutRick Biros, the mastermind behind the FSC, onEpisode 123.

Connect with food safety powerhouse,Charray Williams, and catch up with our interview with her son,Tyler Williams, CEO of ASI Food Safety, in Episode 48.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“[Food Safety Consortium] has to be the best conference in terms of networking [...] because so much stuff in our career has literally happened for the networking at the Food Safety Consortium.” – Matt Regusci

“ It's there [in the Food Safety Consortium]. It's done in the open, and it just looks like a few people sitting there having a normal conversation, and that's what it is. And we're actually recording podcast episodes, which is really fun. I enjoy it.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts, Matt and Francine, are joined by some old friends: food safety icon and advocate Dr. Darin Detwiler and his data analyst wife and co-host of the Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole Podcast, Gennette Zimmer.

Straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025, you'll hear all about Dr. Darin and Gennette's new binge-worthy podcast in this laugh-out-loud crossover episode.

Between stories of speaking up for food safety, submarine service, band camp, podcast creation, and lots of laughter, this episode explores how being a food safety a**hole might actually be a badge of honor.

Get ready to see a new side of Dr. Darin that doesn't show up in a magazine or on stage, and to officially meet his partner in business and in life, the witty storyteller, Gennette.

In this episode:

💩 [01:34] A food safety a**hole, his conflict-averse wife, and their podcast

💩 [06:05] Poisoned, the Emmy award-winning documentary

💩 [07:40] How Confessions is genuine, fun, and very binge-worthy

💩 [10:14] Being food safety a**holes and the stories that don't make it on stage

💩 [16:50] Times when speaking up for food safety went right or wrong

💩 [20:03] When Gennette found out what she was getting herself into

💩 [25:58] How they make it work together both personally and professionally

💩 [31:25] Dr. Darin's life on a nuclear submarine versus his life now

💩 [38:18] Twice irradiated submarine food and a radioactive prank

💩 [40:17] What we can expect from Confessions as it evolves

💩 [43:23] Two similar yet so very different food safety podcasts

💩 [44:59] How our podcasts started and how they're going

💩 [49:05] Dr. Darin and Gennette's favorite thing about the FSC 2025

💩 [51:21] What could make the Food Safety Consortium even better

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

Resources from this episode

Listen to the Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole atfoodsafetyahole.com

Catch up with previous Don't Eat Poop! episodes with Dr. Darin Detwiler, starting withEpisode 106, where you’ll find the links to the other ones as well.

Watch Dr. Darin Detwiler and Bill Marler’s Emmy award-winning documentary,Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.

Hear more about Dr. Darin's life on a nuclear submarine onEpisode 5 of Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole.

Learn more about irradiated food onEpisode 133 | Food Irradiation May Be On Its Way to Being Widely Adopted in the US.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“While there's this flip of a coin 50/50, whether I go into saying something, whether they're gonna treat me as an a**hole or thank me, I also know that if I don't say anything, then I'm 100% the a**hole.” – Dr. Darin Detwiler

“ You generally are treated like an a**hole if they don't care. If they don't know, they're usually very appreciative of it, or it didn't cross their mind [...], that kind of thing. But if they go on the defensive, it's usually that they don't care.” – Gennette Zimmer

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 withDr. Darin,Gennette,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Monica Pancare, CP-FS. a veteran environmental health food inspector, straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025.

She brings a unique perspective, having been around food safety from its inception and having been involved on both sides of the industry, first in operations and now as an inspector.

Joined by Francine, they commiserate about how things were in the late 1970s and 1980s, what has changed, and the trials and tribulations of being the one who watches the kitchen.

In this episode:

💩 [01:15] Meet Monica Pancare, a veteran of the food safety industry

💩 [02:31] Gloves, questionable 1970s practices, and the origin of ServSafe

💩 [05:27] What we didn't know in the 1980s and Marriott Hotels' food safety

💩 [08:51] Monica's pivot to an environmental health food inspector role

💩 [10:14] The benefits for an inspector of starting out in operations

💩 [12:39] Defining which establishments are high risk or low risk

💩 [15:46] The craziest violation Monica's ever seen

💩 [18:09] Francine and Monica's experiences with pests, upsets, and threats

💩 [21:24] What happens when Monica finds big problems in an establishment

💩 [24:42] If the bathrooms are clean, is the rest of the establishment clean?

💩 [25:54] The difference between a training issue and a procedural one

💩 [28:59] What to look for in a restaurant as a consumer

💩 [31:23] Why Monica chose to attend the Food Safety Consortium

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

Resources from this episode

For a whole retelling of Francine's craziest stories from her time as a health inspector, check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Knowledge is power. Knowledge is key. I believe that you always need to keep your finger on the pulse and really have a good, strong knowledge of what's out there in the industry as it changes.” – Monica Pancare

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Ryan Dunn, the Vice President of Sales at DeVere Chemical, our official sponsor.

They talk about how sanitizing is key when it comes to ensuring food safety, but having the best sanitizers in the market or the best training around will never be enough if there isn't a strong culture of safety in place.

Because they know that cultural change starts at the top, they share practical advice that food safety leaders can start implementing right away to turn the existing culture around, making safety the number one priority from upper management to the plant floor.

In this episode:

💩 [01:42] Get to know Ryan Dunn and his serendipitous journey to DeVere

💩 [05:52] How each training is 100% unique to the client at DeVere

💩 [08:24] Real results: from multiple violations to a culture of safety

💩 [12:38] How to convince leadership to invest in food safety

💩 [16:09] When a whole shift quit instead of taking the training

💩 [17:07] Resistance to change starts at the top

💩 [20:10] A simple mindset shift that can change the way we lead

💩 [23:35] 4 leadership lessons to build a strong food safety culture

💩 [31:00] A tool to find out what your crew needs and wants 

💩 [32:07] The power of managing each individual as their own person

💩 [33:50] Make sure to meet Ryan at the next industry conference

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

Resources from this episode

Learn more about how DeVere Chemical can take your operation's food safety to the next level atdeverechemical.com.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

" We've taken the personality out of management. I think people just feel disconnected. I hear it all the time. They're disconnected from their relationships with their leaders, and their leaders are disconnected with their crew." – Ryan Dunn

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 withRyan,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, food safety veterans Matt and Francine are joined by Alex O'Brien, the Dairy Safety & Quality Coordinator at the Center for Dairy Research, also known as the Wisconsin cheese food safety guy.

Milk safety has been a recurring topic on the podcast, especially given the growing demand for raw milk, but this is the first time the focus has been on cheese itself.

So, tune in to discover how to make cheese safe. You'll learn how the cheese-making process affects its safety, important lessons about environmental monitoring, and how to make raw milk and cheese a little safer.

In this episode:

💩 [01:27] Alex O'Brien's many hats as the Wisconsin cheese food safety guy

💩 [04:46] The factors that make cheese safe, even unrefrigerated

💩 [10:06] How to get high-quality milk even through a crappy milking process

💩 [13:27] What's behind cheese outbreaks post-pasteurization

💩 [16:52] It doesn't take much unpasteurized cheese to make you sick

💩 [18:53] How to ensure cheese plants are safe and some cautionary tales

💩 [25:40] The four different types of food safety people

💩 [28:45] The difference between cleaning and sanitizing

💩 [30:14] When food safety people have a foodborne illness

💩 [32:58] Thermal pasteurization versus UV pasteurization and raw milk

💩 [37:59] How to make raw milk and cheese a little safer and save lives

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

Resources from this episode

Catch up with the episode where we talked to Bob Comstock about his UV-based pasteurization process,Episode 131 | How a Little Sunlight in Your Milk is Going to Profoundly Change the Dairy Industry.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ If you're finding [Listeria] in your environment more than 10% of the time, you have a problem, right? So, I like to emphasize that you want to find it, but if it's so prevalent and you keep finding it in the same spot and you can't figure it out, then it's a problem.” – Alex O'Brien

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 withAlex,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine have just gotten back from the Food Safety Consortium 2024, and they’re sharing everything while it’s still fresh in their minds.

You will hear all about their experience and their biggest takeaways. You will also be in the know about the amazing interviews they have coming your way.

So, don’t miss this event recap!

This is a replay of Episode 89. In this episode:

💩 [02:46] An exciting start to the Food Safety Consortium 2024

💩 [05:33] The best networking event in food safety 

💩 [08:42] The difference being in Washington D.C. made

💩 [10:25] The interviews they did and that are coming your way

💩 [12:24] The Women in Food Safety networking event

💩 [14:48] The sense of community around industry colleagues

💩 [16:49] The missed opportunities of our legal system

💩 [17:58] What you can expect in the upcoming episodes

💩 [18:50] A taste of fame

💩 [19:57] Matt’s and Francine’s biggest takeaways from the Consortium

💩 [22:46] Food safety concerns aren’t the same all over the world

💩 [25:00] Concerns about the FDA’s Reorganization Plan

💩 [26:14] The right reason for wearing black gloves

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

Resources from this episode

Register for the Food Safety Consortium 2025, from October 19-21,here. Use the discount code POOP for $200 OFF. See you there!

Catch up on our interview with Rick Biros, the organizer of the Food Safety Consortium, on last year’s edition,Episode 37 | Integrating Cannabis into The World of Food Safety with Rick Biros.

Learn more aboutWomen in Food Safety.

Catch up on the episode about the FDA’s plans to cut food funding to the states,Episode 69 | A Look at the FDA’s Reorganization Plan and Some Food Safety Mythbusting.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Really, truly, the Food Safety Consortium is the best networking event that I have ever been to.” – Matthew Regusci

“Corporate culture has got to change before we can change food safety culture, and that's where we need to start. I know that's where the difference is going to be made.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by David Hatch from Neogen, one of the world's largest suppliers of food safety testing platforms.

Get ready to learn all about food safety testing, such as what type of technology is available when it comes to testing (get results within seconds), and how the tests work in practice to keep food safe.

Unfortunately, you’ll also learn about the sad truth about most of the food safety industry being almost 2 decades behind when it comes to actually being able to do anything with the important data that it collects.

Tune in to hear the reasons why and how David and Neogen are working to change the tide.

This is a replay of Episode 64.

In this episode:

💩 [03:46] Meet David and Neogen 

💩 [06:49] The type of testing that most companies use and how it works

💩 [09:38] The importance of testing in food safety

💩 [12:38] The problem of managing testing information on spreadsheets and paper

💩 [16:33] David’s mission at Neogen to bring food safety to the present

💩 [18:28] Using spreadsheets doesn’t actually mean the process is digitized 

💩 [19:51] What it takes for food safety to become preventative instead of reactive 

💩 [21:08] What’s great about the Food Safety Consortium

💩 [28:03] The other side of Neogen: making food safe upstream

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

Resources from this episode

Register for the Food Safety Consortium 2025, from October 19-21,here. Use the discount code POOP for $200 OFF. See you there!

Neogen websiteneogen.com. 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“The problem is that the corporate management at food companies hasn't found a way to justify the digital transformation that needs to take place. And it's not that they don't want to, it's that the food industry operates at the lowest margins of any industry in the world. On average, it's only a 2.8% margin, which is the lowest in all industries in the world.” – David Hatch

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!

We'd love to hear from you!

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

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are talking about how the majority of people are finally seeing that food irradiation may be a good solution for keeping food safe.

Between personal anecdotes, lessons from their journeys in food safety, and a new Food Safety News article, our hosts remember how this technology was first received decades ago, celebrate the big change in consumer opinion, and point out the biggest hurdles to its full adoption in the US.

In this episode:

💩 [01:03] When conversations about food irradiation first came around

💩 [02:10] Matt and Francine's childhood go-to foods

💩 [08:16] People's strong initial reactions to the idea of irradiated food

💩 [10:17] People don't like change, and they're still not seeing the "ir-"

💩 [12:07] The hardest thing in food safety and how Matt got into the industry

💩 [16:37] The review that revealed a growing acceptance of food irradiation

💩 [20:14] Will companies start adopting food irradiation?

💩 [22:07] How the FDA is getting in the way of change

💩 [25:38] What needs to change for food irradiation to be widely used

💩 [28:28] The great Listeria problem and the technology of the future

💩 [30:30] The FDA needs more change management people

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

Resources from this episode

Catch up with our last episode, where Matt shares his story,Episode 132.

Learn about Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) inthis LinkedIn post by Francine.

Check out the Food Safety News article our hosts are talking about,Review reveals growing support for food irradiation.

Listen to the episode with Bob Comstock about his UV-based technology for making milk safe,Episode 131.

Learn more about FSMA 204, which has been punted yet again, inEpisode 109.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Change management [is] the hardest thing in food safety. It was 20 years ago. It's still the same today. Change management is the hardest thing because getting people to change their habits is exactly what we do in food safety, and it is the hardest thing to do over and over and over and over again.” – Matt Regusci

“ I think [food irradiation is] a good thing. I also think that hypochlorous acid is a good thing, but nobody wants to change the way they do things. Everybody's like, it's the same old, same old that we've been doing for years. People don't like change.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Get ready for an intensely personal, raw, and possibly uncomfortable episode of Don’t Eat Poop! Warning: In case alcoholism is a sensitive topic for you, proceed with caution.

In the face of a recent Celsius Astro Vibe energy drink recall due to a mix-up at the factory, which resulted in High Noon vodka seltzer alcohol inside Celsius cans, our hosts Matt and Francine are approaching this recall in a different way.

To better illustrate how serious this mishap is and its possible consequences, Matt opens up on his complicated decades-long journey with alcoholism and how he's finally managed to recover from it in the past two and a half years.

Tune in for this brave story and more information on this possibly disastrous recall.

In this episode:

💩 [03:00] Matt's early introduction to alcohol

💩 [04:06] From his teenage years all the way to COVID

💩 [05:44] When Matt's addiction to alcohol got really bad

💩 [09:45] The breaking point and Matt's hard road to sobriety

💩 [18:13] The physical aspects behind addiction

💩 [21:10] The feelings that come up in the process of recovery

💩 [24:59] The mistakenly alcoholic Celsius Astro Vibe recall

💩 [25:49] The risks if these mislabeled cans fall into kids' hands

💩 [27:00] Understand High Noon's monumentally terrible whoops

💩 [30:58] The seeming lack of quality control in these factories

💩 [32:12] Energy drinks and their differences

💩 [34:53] The recent diet Coke and regular Coke mix-up

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

Resources from this episode

Listen to the songParalyzed by NF.

Learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous and find the one nearest to you ataa.org.

Check outthe NBC articleMatt refers to when talking about the Celsius recall.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ An alcoholic who is in recovery, getting a drink that has alcohol in it, and they don't know, that could be very bad. Will it kill them? No, that one alcohol drink is not going to kill them. Will it kill them because they start drinking again, and then everything goes down? Potentially.” – Matt Regusci

“ Sometimes I wonder if some of these places even have quality control. I don't know. They have to, at some level, but you have to wonder.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In episode 127 of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine talked about a technological breakthrough that could zap the pathogens out of raw milk while preserving its beneficial components.

Well, in this episode they are joined by the man behind it all, Bob Comstock, the Founder and CEO of Tamarack Biotics, the company that's developed this UV-based pasteurization process.

Tune in to discover how this technology makes nutritious and safe milk, how it will replace thermal treatments, and how it's already making its way to the rest of the world.

In this episode:

💩 [01:11] Meet Bob Comstock and his journey with Tamarack Biotics

💩 [02:57] How this UV-based technology makes milk safe

💩 [06:44] The differences in milk after different treatments

💩 [08:51] Improving milk's bioavailability and restoring immune function

💩 [11:10] The 3 reasons this technology will change everything

💩 [11:44] The FDA and the history of making milk safe

💩 [12:47] How TruActive kills only the pathogens and leaves the rest

💩 [15:40] Solving the biggest challenge in processing milk with heat

💩 [16:40] Replacing heat with UV without changing dairy infrastructure

💩 [19:00] Why the FDA is slowing down the adoption of this technology

💩 [23:00] How UV-treated milk can prevent children from developing allergies

💩 [25:07] This is already making its way to the rest of the world

💩 [26:05] Making infant formula better and more nutritious

💩 [29:33] Why plant-based milks can't compare with the real thing

💩 [31:29] How this technology will affect the raw milk industry

💩 [35:39] The groundbreaking approval from the FDA and the global rollout

💩 [37:35] Research centers for dairy, food technology, and nutrition  

💩 [40:16] The very real dangers of raw milk (take care of your cats)

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

Resources from this episode

Catch up with the episode where we first talked about Bob Comstock and his innovative technology, Episode 127 | Zapping Pathogens Could Be a Breakthrough For Making Raw Milk Safe.

Learn more aboutTamarack Biotics here.

Catch up with one of the podcast's best episodes on raw milk:Episode 22 | Is It Safe to Drink Raw Milk? Food Safety Specialists Break It Down.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“This approval we got from the FDA was groundbreaking. It's opening an enormous door because they've affirmed that we're legal pasteurization of milk and that we're actually safer than heat. It's not a compromise in safety that some people might think from an alternative to heat, but it's safer.” – Bob Comstock

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 withBob,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are diving into the 2025 IFIC Food and Health Survey, a robust study that reveals confidence in U.S. food safety has hit an all-time low.

Tune in for their analysis on the big shifts that have happened in consumer opinions and concerns over the past few years, and their opinion on what this means for food suppliers going forward.

Keep in mind that there is a lot of their trademark humor throughout the episode. Don't always take things at face value, unless they're actual stats. Beware!

In this episode:

💩 [01:18] Matt's going from 11 to 12 forever kiddos

💩 [07:32] Francine's health scare (don't worry, she's alright now)

💩 [09:55] Confidence in U.S. food safety has hit an all-time low

💩 [12:00] How different generations relate to the safety of their food

💩 [15:43] Why overall confidence dropped so much so fast

💩 [17:46] The pressure is on for food suppliers to catch up 

💩 [19:55] The shift in consumers' major concerns around the U.S. food supply

💩 [24:17] Consumers are becoming more worried about foodborne illnesses

💩 [28:50] Growing concern over heavy metals, chemicals, and food dyes

💩 [33:52] Americans' views on the safety of imported food

💩 [37:21] Key results from the 2025 IFIC Food and Health Survey

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

Resources from this episode

Check out the Food Safety News article our hosts are talking about,Confidence in U.S. food safety hits an all-time low.

Learn more about the Clean Label Project Certification atcleanlabelproject.org.

Catch up on our previous episode for more on the Shakes Outbreak,Episode 129 | A Recap of 2025’s Major Outbreaks (So Far) with Bill Marler.

Catch up on the episode where we talked about what MAHA is trying to push,Episode 125 | FDA Spikes the Ball and Claims Success.

Watch Emmy award-winning documentary,Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.

Learn all about the WanaBana Cinnamon Applesauce Pouches Lead and Chromium Poisoning Outbreak withEpisode 51.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“The food industry is going to have to shift. It just is. It's not a, if it's going to, it's a when it's going to because it won't be able to compete with other companies that address these issues. It just won't.” – Matt Regusci

“ I don't think even three years ago that [...] people were aware of foodborne illnesses so much. Yeah, they existed. But [...] I don't think it was something that was really even thought about. Which makes me believe that things like Poisoned and the podcasts that are out there talking about these things are helping.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Bill Marler, the nation's leading foodborne illness attorney, to discuss some of the major outbreaks of 2025 (so far), those who aren't doing what they're supposed to, and how we can push for changes towards food safety.

Buckle up because not only are there many, but they're very frustrating ones.

We'll revisit the Boar's Head Outbreak as new violations have been found in other plants, and the company is reopening the plant from the outbreak. We'll tackle the Darwin Dog Food case, which has been linked to a four-year-old child who became infected with E. coli O157:H7 and developed HUS, as well as the Listeria Shake Outbreak in long-term care facilities, with 14 dead.

In this episode:

💩 [01:11] Sexy tractors and feeling politically out of place

💩 [04:07] Do the Boar's Head executives even care?

💩 [08:06] What Boar's Head is doing and what they should've done instead

💩 [16:15] The frustrating E. coli-contaminated Darwin Dog Food case

💩 [18:53] FDA's failure to enforce a product recall from Darwin

💩 [24:14] How Bill is finally getting justice for the Shake Outbreak victims

💩 [29:42] How companies can save lives by testing their products

💩 [33:29] When authorities redact documents and withhold critical information 

💩 [37:58] The Romaine Lettuce outbreak that remains a "mystery"

💩 [42:49] How Bill Marler is unfortunately having to do the FDA and CDC's jobs

💩 [50:04] The incredible success of the fight against E. coli in hamburgers

💩 [55:04] Addressing the Poisoned documentary skeptics

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

Resources from this episode

Read theMarler Blog post with the 35 pages of non-conformances on Boar's Head's plants.

Read about thefrustrating E. coli-contaminated Darwin Dog Food case.

Read about theListeria Shake Outbreak in long-term care facilities.

Here's thevideo with the keynote speaker saying we should "Put Bill Marler out of business".

Watch Bill Marler and Darin Detwiler’s Emmy award-winning documentary,Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.

Read about the multi-state E. coli outbreak where theFDA and CDC chose to Romaine Silent.

Catch up with past Bill Marler episodes:

Episode 17

Episode 18

Bonus Episode

Episode 92

Episode 100

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ I don't know why FDA won't name the romaine lettuce guys, even though they did when the same guys were growing onions. I don't have a good answer to that question other than I just think it sadly, undercuts the authority of public health, that they seem to be an honest broker in the process. It breaks my heart.” – Bill Marler

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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

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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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

Think you know food safety? Think again. In this special highlight episode of Don’t Eat Poop, we’re rewinding to some of the most surprising facts we’ve ever shared on the show — the kind that can change the way you shop, cook, and eat.

From chemical-laced decaf to disgusting yet FDA-approved gloves, these are real, documented truths that every food lover (and every food safety professional) should know… but most don’t.

In this episode:

💩 [01:43] Why some decaf coffee may contain industrial solvents — and what you should choose instead (yes, there is a safe option)

💩 [04:40] The surprising truth about mayonnaise storage 

💩 [06:52] Why washing this food does more harm than good 

💩 [12:41] The big myth about “killing all bacteria” in fresh produce facilities and why washing produce at home won’t save you

💩 [20:08] The dirty truth about disposable gloves (including the pathogens and contaminants found right out of the box)

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

Resources & References

Clean Label Project: Decaf Coffee Contaminants White PaperEpisode 111 | What They Don’t Tell You About Decaf Coffee That You Should Absolutely KnowEpisode 99 | 20 Food Items You Don’t Actually Need to RefrigerateEpisode 73 | Don’t Wash Your Chicken, SeriouslyEpisode 69 | A Look at the FDA’s Reorganization Plan and Some Food Safety MythbustingEpisode 115 | Gloves: Risks and Solutions for the Most Overlooked Zone 1 Food Safety Item with Steve Ardagh, CEO & Founder of Eagle Protect

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“Methylene Chloride is an active ingredient in paint thinner that was recently banned by the EPA. So you could not use this product to scrape paint off your walls. It's too dangerous for that, but to throw into some coffee beans to get rid of caffeine? No problem?!” – Matt Regusci

“We know from independent research that in tests done on 2,800 new and unused gloves from 26 different brands, over 260 different viable pathogens were found. Listeria, E. coli, Salmonella. Name it, it was there. ” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are revisiting a much-discussed topic within the food safety world: raw milk.

Despite its undeniable health benefits, the long list of dangerous pathogens that may be present makes consuming raw milk far too risky. Until now, the only way to make sure milk is safe for consumption has been through pasteurization; however, an emerging advanced UV light technology may change the game.

Tune in to discover what we know so far about the breakthrough that promises to zap pathogens out of raw milk while preserving its beneficial components, which will save lots of lives.

In this episode:

💩 [01:02] No sympathy for a man cold

💩 [06:49] Why you can potentially die if you drink raw milk

💩 [08:58] A possible way to make raw milk safe without pasteurization

💩 [10:58] PSA about contacting Matt and Francine on LinkedIn

💩 [12:14] The new technology and what is FDA-approved so far

💩 [16:41] A macro view of how the process possibly works

💩 [19:53] What will make or break this new technology

💩 [21:31] The importance of agreeing to disagree

💩 [23:08] The potential uses and impact of this treatment process

💩 [25:22] The benefits for raw milk producers and consumers

💩 [27:25] How about some Don't Eat Poop! merch?

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

Resources from this episode

Check out the Food Safety News article our hosts are talking about,Zapping pathogens could be breakthrough for raw milk.

Catch up with one of the podcast's best episodes on raw milk:Episode 22 | Is It Safe to Drink Raw Milk? Food Safety Specialists Break It Down.

Listen to our previous episode with Roger Hancock:Episode 126 | How the FDA Wants YOU to Fix Food Safety Recalls.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

"Who doesn't know there's poop in raw milk? There's poop in pasteurized milk. The difference is it's pasteurized, so it's got rid of the pathogens." – Matt Regusci

“They've been advertising [these UV light treatments] in kitchens for equipment and things like that for years. I've always been a bit skeptical [...] because it's only going to sanitize where the light can reach. [...] That wouldn't be the case with this. I mean, it's kind of exciting.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

What happens when the FDA says, “Help us help you!” in the middle of recall chaos? You get an impromptu - and enlightening - episode featuring food recall expert Roger Hancock, CEO of Recall InfoLink. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine, together with Roger, dive into a recently released (and very quietly announced) FDA letter calling on the food industry to step up and collaborate on modernizing food recall systems - especially for products impacting babies and kids.

Spoiler alert: this episode is part policy analysis, part industry gossip, and part Roger being roped into a podcast live via a surprise call. You’re welcome.

In this episode:

💩 [01:07] Introducing Roger Hancock, CEO of Recall InfoLink

💩 [03:38] Roger breaks down the FDA’s 2025 recall modernization priority

💩 [05:55] FDA’s letter to industry leaders

💩 [08:00] When are you required to notify the FDA about a recall?

💩 [11:12] Is reporting to the FDA really that tedious? Roger spills the data

💩 [13:28] Recall communication protocols

💩 [16:12] Infant formula, foods intended for children, and allergens

💩 [17:32] The three pillars of every recall and why message delivery isn’t enough

💩 [21:14] Increasing the speed of recall classification

💩 [27:12] Recall processes, standardizing data, and AI

💩 [35:37] Modernizing data submissions

💩 [43:16] Why consumers never hear about recalls

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the food safety news article we’re talking about today:FDA wants industry to suggest how to better use recalls for food safety

Behind the Scenes at the Food Safety Consortium with Rick Biros: Conference Culture, Compliance & Community |Episode 123

Alliance for Recall Ready Communities

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ The important part of recall, quite frankly, isn't the message. The important part about a recall is the action.” – Roger Hancock

“ There's a variety of potential outcomes for a defective product, but those three things are critical. Defective product, consumers that have purchased it, and instructions about what to do.” – Roger Hancock

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 withRoger,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

The FDA just dropped a list of food safety "wins," and in this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are here to break it down. 

Spoiler: If you're hoping for action on salmonella-in-your-eggs or listeria-in-your-lunchmeat, you might want to lower your expectations. Matt and Francine dissect what the FDA is really prioritizing (hint: it’s not pathogen prevention), why “generally recognized as safe” might be due for a rebrand, and what Frank Yiannas had to say with his subtle-but-spicy LinkedIn post. 

In this episode:

💩 [01:08] Introducing Don’t Eat Poop’s new sponsor

💩 [04:36] The FDA’s 100 Days of Embracing Gold-Standard Science, Transparency and Common Sense

💩 [06:00] Infant formula improvements

💩 [09:00] Titanium dioxide and other banned substances

💩 [10:03] GRAS reform: What “generally recognized as safe” really means

💩 [11:14] Nature food dyes

💩 [12:12] Defining “ultra-processed foods” is harder than you think

💩 [14:56] Frank Yiannas’s take on the FDA’s 100 Days

💩 [20:37] Using AI to help utilize big data

💩 [22:58] The drug side of the FDA gets 3x more attention than the food side

💩 [26:36] Two types of safety: what kills you now vs. what kills you slowly

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the FDA’s 100 Days of Embracing Gold-Standard Science, Transparency and Common Sensehere.

Listeria’s Lasting Damage: A Food Safety Wake-Up Call | Episode 122. Listenhere.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ The FDA should actually be renamed DAF. Drug administration and food. It's like food is an afterthought in the FDA.” – Matt Regusci

“ We need to think about the American consumers and keeping their food safe because we don't want them to die when they eat their food.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this jaw-dropping episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine unpack a food safety scandal so grotesque it could make you ill just thinking about it. From a Kansas City steakhouse scandal involving literal food contamination for fetish content, to cringe-worthy confessions from food safety trainees, this episode hits every horrifying note in the foodservice handbook of “what not to do.”

Hold onto your lunch: this is the food safety podcast episode you wish was fiction.

In this episode:

💩 [02:28] The cult classic restaurant movie - Waiting

💩 [05:11] The case of Jace Hanson

💩 [10:36] Food contamination for Grindr clout

💩 [12:26] Confessions from a food safety trainee

💩 [17:17] How improper storage and poor practices shut down a high-end restaurant

💩 [22:18] The fallout: 380 complaints, 130 illnesses, and one closed restaurant

💩 [28:37] Why culture fit matters in food safety

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

Resources from this episode

Take a look at the article we’re talking about in this episode:https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/07/man-in-kansas-pleads-guilty-to-contaminating-food-at-upscale-restaurant/ 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ The Leawood police said that they eventually received 380 tips about food contamination from diners who ate at the restaurant. 380 in one month. So if you guys are ever curious about hiring practices and how important that is, it's very important.” – Matt Regusci

“Never did I think I’d read Food Safety News and Grindr in the same sentence.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop! recorded on-site at the 2024 Food Safety Consortium, our hosts Matt and Francine sit down with Rick Biros, the mastermind behind the conference and publisher of Food Safety Tech. 

From escalator woes to high-level discussions on FSMA 204 and food safety culture metrics, this episode captures the pulse of a post-pandemic industry ready to level up. Whether you're an industry vet or a newcomer, get ready for insights and a healthy dose of laughter.

In this episode:

💩 [01:41] Kicking things off with Rick Biros

💩 [04:30] The escalator strikes again! Why venue logistics matter

💩 [06:55] The value of a conference: education & networking

💩 [08:59] FSMA 204, listeria outbreaks, and why the food safety industry is “waking up”

💩 [11:06] Chemical testing rising

💩 [13:16] The AFFI partnership: how collaboration upgraded the agenda

💩 [17:17] Women in Food Safety Breakfast: growing stronger every year

💩 [19:37] What’s next for Food Safety Tech: more projects & purpose

💩 [22:12] Measuring food safety culture

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

Resources from this episode

Visit: https://foodsafetytech.com/

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ We've not really been paying a lot of attention from a regulatory standpoint on chemical testing. That's been all Europe's big issues. Now with forever chemicals and a lot of the other issues, we're going to see an increase in the aspect of analytical testing that we've not seen in a long time in the food industry.” – Rick Biros

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 withRick,Francine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon! 

🎙️ 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 byIdeablossoms

🍽️ 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 FrancineandMatton LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

When foodborne illness becomes a life sentence, who carries the burden? 

In this gut-wrenching episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine share the devastating story of John Trahar - a once-vibrant entrepreneur now reduced to a shadow of himself after a listeria infection caused bacterial meningitis. It's not just about pathogens and paperwork; it's about people. This episode puts a very real, very human face on why preventing foodborne illness isn't optional.

In this episode:

💩 [05:20] Introduction to Bill Marler

💩 [05:57] Listeria strikes again: backstory on the Mexico potato connection

💩 [07:54] The devastating effects of listeria

💩 [14:32] What bacterial meningitis means for a human body

💩 [19:00] John’s wife’s emotional reality

💩 [22:10] Family fallout: Impact on their teenage son and family business

💩 [28:43] Where's the FDA? Lingering questions about traceback and accountability

💩 [30:51] Why storytelling matters in food safety culture

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

Resources from this episode

Check out Bill Marler’s blog:https://www.marlerblog.com/ 

The case that we’re talking about today:https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/a-tragic-listeria-illness-and-the-search-for-the-cause/ 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Dying from listeria is probably one of the worst ways to die. [...] It's perpetual pain.” – Matt Regusci

“ I wouldn’t want to live with listeria. I would prefer to die.” – 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 withFrancine,Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's bookWho Watches the Kitchen?onAmazon!