Opinion & Contributed Articles

Publisher’s Platform: Food Safety Education Month starts Today – Here is what I want from government, industry academia and you

The National Restaurant Association created National Food Safety Month in 1994 through its Educational Foundation, to heighten awareness about the importance of food safety education.

By Bill Marler

/ 1 Sep 2026

Publisher’s Platform: Food Safety Education Month starts Today – Here is what I want from government, industry academia and you

Publisher's Platform: Hamburger E. coli was 95 percent of my practice until federal inspection ended it. On-farm slaughter would bring it back.

On Aug. 28, 2026, President Trump said he would give farmers and ranchers the right to process their own food, in a Truth Social post calling the four largest meat

By Bill Marler

/ 28 Aug 2026

Publisher's Platform: Hamburger E. coli was 95 percent of my practice until federal inspection ended it. On-farm slaughter would bring it back.

Publisher’s Platform: The Secretary Is Right About Real Food. Forty Percent of Americans Say They Are Eating Less of It Because of Cyclospora. Here Are Six Things HHS Could Do About That, and One Thing the Secretary Should Stop Doing.

The Secretary is asking Americans to build their health around fresh, whole, minimally processed food, and this summer a great many of them looked at the lettuce and quietly decided against it. Nobody gets talked back into the produce aisle. You make the produce safe, and then you show your work.

By Bill Marler

/ 27 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: The Secretary Is Right About Real Food. Forty Percent of Americans Say They Are Eating Less of It Because of Cyclospora. Here Are Six Things HHS Could Do About That, and One Thing the Secretary Should Stop Doing.

Publisher's Platform: Thirteen letters to FDA, CDC, HHS and Taylor Farms, and not one published answer

Meanwhile, the answers are appearing — in newspapers and on a company FAQ page. Congress should hold a hearing.

By Bill Marler

/ 25 Aug 2026

Publisher's Platform: Thirteen letters to FDA, CDC, HHS and Taylor Farms, and not one published answer

Publisher’s Platform: Twenty-One Outbreaks Is a Normal Year. Ten Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty Sick From One of Them Is Not.

What none of this is, at any point, is a consumer behavior problem. The field for next summer gets planted in a few months. Nobody chooses what is living in the water when it does, and washing will not help then either.

By Bill Marler

/ 22 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: Twenty-One Outbreaks Is a Normal Year. Ten Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty Sick From One of Them Is Not.

Publisher’s Platform: There Is No Premarket Approval for Food, Says the Senior Food Adviser at HHS. Ten Days Earlier His Own Secretary Called the Exception to It a Loophole That Industry Hijacked.

A recall is not proof the system worked. It is a notice, sent after the fact, usually by the company that failed, telling you that something already went wrong and you may have eaten it. Calling this a good year for recalls is not a defense of the FDA. It is an insult to the people counted in it.

By Bill Marler

/ 20 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: There Is No Premarket Approval for Food, Says the Senior Food Adviser at HHS. Ten Days Earlier His Own Secretary Called the Exception to It a Loophole That Industry Hijacked.

Publisher’s Platform: The President Has Nominated Dr. Heidi Overton to Run FDA. She Would Inherit the Largest Cyclospora Outbreak Ever Recorded, and Here Is the To-Do List I Would Put on Her Desk.

I have watched commissioners arrive since 1993, each with an agenda, and I have outlasted every one of them. That is not a boast. It is the problem, and it is the reason I am writing this the day the name came out rather than the day something goes wrong.

By Bill Marler

/ 20 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: The President Has Nominated Dr. Heidi Overton to Run FDA. She Would Inherit the Largest Cyclospora Outbreak Ever Recorded, and Here Is the To-Do List I Would Put on Her Desk.

Publisher’s Platform: California Lettuce Was Never Implicated. California Growers Plowed Under a Third of the Crop Anyway. Here Is What the Trade Associations, Washington and the Rest of Us Can Actually Do About It.

Fix the finding and one farm takes the loss instead of ninety percent of the lettuce. Do that and you put me out of the fresh fruit and vegetable business, and I would go gladly.

By Bill Marler

/ 19 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: California Lettuce Was Never Implicated. California Growers Plowed Under a Third of the Crop Anyway. Here Is What the Trade Associations, Washington and the Rest of Us Can Actually Do About It.

The last mile of a food safety recall: It is not complete until consumers are protected

– OPINION –

By Hal King

/ 19 Aug 2026

The last mile of a food safety recall: It is not complete until consumers are protected

The information deficit: Why slow data is making us sick – again

– OPINION –

By Guest Opinion

/ 17 Aug 2026

The information deficit: Why slow data is making us sick – again

Publisher’s Platform: Frank Yiannas Wants an Independent Board to Investigate Foodborne Outbreaks. Set the Airplanes Aside.

I have known Frank since his Disney days, through his ten years at Walmart and through his time at FDA, and I guest lecture in his food safety culture class at Michigan State every year. I want his board built. I want to argue with one part of how he sells it.

By Bill Marler

/ 13 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: Frank Yiannas Wants an Independent Board to Investigate Foodborne Outbreaks. Set the Airplanes Aside.

Publisher’s Platform: On the Day CDC confirmed 13,895 Cyclospora cases, the Acting FDA Commissioner told Americans to feel confident about lettuce. We need leadership, not cheerleaders.

Leadership starts with doing something useful instead of saying useless things.

By Bill Marler

/ 11 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: On the Day CDC confirmed 13,895 Cyclospora cases, the Acting FDA Commissioner told Americans to feel confident about lettuce. We need leadership, not cheerleaders.

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Opinion & Contributed Articles

Publisher’s Platform: Food Safety Education Month starts Today – Here is what I want from government, industry academia and you

Publisher’s Platform: The Secretary Is Right About Real Food. Forty Percent of Americans Say They Are Eating Less of It Because of Cyclospora. Here Are Six Things HHS Could Do About That, and One Thing the Secretary Should Stop Doing.

Publisher's Platform: Thirteen letters to FDA, CDC, HHS and Taylor Farms, and not one published answer

Publisher’s Platform: Twenty-One Outbreaks Is a Normal Year. Ten Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty Sick From One of Them Is Not.

Publisher’s Platform: There Is No Premarket Approval for Food, Says the Senior Food Adviser at HHS. Ten Days Earlier His Own Secretary Called the Exception to It a Loophole That Industry Hijacked.

Publisher’s Platform: The President Has Nominated Dr. Heidi Overton to Run FDA. She Would Inherit the Largest Cyclospora Outbreak Ever Recorded, and Here Is the To-Do List I Would Put on Her Desk.

Publisher’s Platform: California Lettuce Was Never Implicated. California Growers Plowed Under a Third of the Crop Anyway. Here Is What the Trade Associations, Washington and the Rest of Us Can Actually Do About It.

The last mile of a food safety recall: It is not complete until consumers are protected

The information deficit: Why slow data is making us sick – again

Publisher’s Platform: Frank Yiannas Wants an Independent Board to Investigate Foodborne Outbreaks. Set the Airplanes Aside.

Publisher’s Platform: On the Day CDC confirmed 13,895 Cyclospora cases, the Acting FDA Commissioner told Americans to feel confident about lettuce. We need leadership, not cheerleaders.

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