Saturday, October 31, 2026
Last Saturday’s edition was about two sets of books — the record the agencies keep and the one they publish. This week (week 17) the published record started saying what the working record already knew, some of it in writing from people who rarely put things in writing. The Justice Department
This Wednesday, October 28, the China International Food Safety & Quality Conference (CIFSQ) opens in Shanghai for its twentieth year. On Sunday morning I got a note from Cary Sun, the conference’s Global Event Manager, telling me that as part of the 20th anniversary ceremony the conference will recognize me as a Distinguished Contributor. I
The FDA updated its CORE Investigations of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks table on October 21, 2026. The CDC updated its Current Outbreaks page the same day. Here is where things stand.
What’s new at FDA this week
For the Listeria monocytogenes outbreak (ref #1417), FDA has now initiated an on-site inspection and sampling. Forty-six people are
On October 21, 2026, FDA’s outbreak investigation table marked reference #1403, a Salmonella Newport outbreak first posted August 26 with 84 sick, as ended at 119 cases. In 56 days the file never named a food, never drew an on-site inspection, never got an advisory, and never had a CDC notice, so the states, hospitalizations
First, a shout-out to Jerry Hagstrom, who has been covering farm and food policy in Washington longer than just about anyone, for his piece in The Fence Post on the International Fresh Produce Association’s push to get members to sign up for its Advocacy Action Network. Jerry reads the fine print so the rest
A tip of the pen to Gina Shaw, whose piece in the October issue of Infectious Disease Special Edition, “Invaders From Planet Lettuce,” asks the right question: how did produce become the vehicle that makes so many of us sick? It is the clearest explanation I have read of why this summer’s Cyclospora season
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Last Saturday’s edition closed on a seed lot with no named supplier, a chicken wrap outbreak with no brand, and 619 sick on FDA’s files with no food named. This week the wrap file reached 50 and the first brand on the record came from a federal complaint, not an agency
Paris Martineau is an investigative reporter at Consumer Reports, and on October 9 she published the best post-mortem anyone has written on the 2026 Cyclospora outbreak: The Cyclospora Outbreak Is Over. The Gaps It Exposed Are Not. Read it. Consumer Reports spent the hours after the recall notice calling companies to decode a list written
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Last Saturday’s edition closed on three files shut without a cause and eleven open files carrying 675 sick with no food named. This week FDA matched the broccoli sprout outbreak to a seed lot, three seed brands recalled it from five online marketplaces, and the supplier is still unnamed; the E.
Gallup released new polling today and the numbers should make everyone in government and the food industry very uncomfortable.
Only 65% of Americans are now very or somewhat confident that food sold in grocery stores is safe to eat. That is the lowest Gallup has ever recorded, down from 73% last year and 81% in
