Civil Law

Publisher’s Platform: Mystery Listeria Outbreak Investigation needs to be Reopened

On July 24, 2024, John tested positive for Listeria, while in the ICU. John’s sample was genetically linked, by Whole Genome Sequencing, to a cluster of Listeria associated with potatoes from Mexico.

Here are the prior investigations by States, FDA and CDC:

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/files/2025/08/2025-3195-CARA-656-_Redacted-4.pdf

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/files/2025/08/2025-3195-CARA-775-_Redacted-1.pdf

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/files/2025/08/2025-3195-CARA-918-_Redacted-1.pdf

Figure: SNP-tree of sequences of REP strain uploaded to the public sequence repository at 
NCBI as of July 2025

On July 16, 2024, John was admitted to the hospital with a headache, facial drooping, … Read the rest

Civil Law

Publisher’s Platform: FDA, CDC where is the transparency?

89 people were sickened, 36 were hospitalized, 7 developed kidney failure and 1 person died in 15 States

States impacted: Arizona (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (7), Indiana (8), Kansas (1), Kentucky (1), Missouri (50), Montana (1), North Dakota (2), Nebraska (3), Ohio (8), Pennsylvania (1), South Dakota (1), Tennessee (1), Wisconsin (2). 

As a father of three beautiful and strong young women, I have become nearly immune to constructive criticism. It is in that vein I call out my friends … Read the rest

Civil Law

Publisher’s Platform: What has happened to the “Safest Food Supply in the World?”

“Over the last few months, we have seen a stunning number of outbreaks, and I know because I have been doing this work since the 1993 Jack-in-the-Box E. coli Outbreak,” said William “Bill” Marler. “From Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli and foods as varied as cucumbers, deli meat, chicken, carrots, hamburger, onions, lettuce and eggs, it seems that out food safety net is fraying at best and broken at worst, and we are not even talking about the countless … Read the rest

Civil Law

Publisher’s Platform: A Bit(e) of McDonald’s E. coli History

Several years ago, I was giving a talk at the Association of Health Care Journalists’ conference in Boston.  My talk was primarily an overview of where food safety has come since the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1993.  

At one point I introduced an article I found in 1993 at the beginning of the Jack in the Box litigation. The article, “Hemorrhagic colitis associated with a rare Escherichia coli serotype.” New England Journal of Medicine, 1983 Mar 24; … Read the rest

Civil Law

Publisher’s Platform: House and Senate should act now on Boar’s Head plant

— OPINION —

The years of inspection reports (Here are the Inspection Reports in PDF.) leave little doubt that the Boar’s Head plant’s food safety plan must have been non-existent. It is hard to wrap your head around how food could be produced in these conditions by this company and under the gaze of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors.

It is time for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate committees use their authority … Read the rest

Civil Law

Environmental Disclosures: CDP announces plastics to be added to Reporting Platform for first time

On April 19, 2023, the influential CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) announced that nearly 7,000 organizations worldwide can disclose their plastic-related impacts for the first time, as CDP’s global environmental disclosure platform opens for 2023 reporting. CDP is adding plastic-related reporting to its online platform in response to a request from more than 740 investors with US$ 136 trillion in assets.

Last October, CDP reported that a record of around 20,000 organizations (over 18,700 companies representing over half of global market capitalization … Read the rest