Accomplished personal injury lawyer, Food Safety News founder and publisher, and internationally recognized food safety expert. Bill's advocacy work has led to testimony before Congress and his blog reaches 1M+ readers annually.
Today is World Food Safety Day, and this year the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization have given us a theme that sounds almost like it was written for the work I have spent the last three decades doing: "From burden to solutions – safe food everywhere."
World Food Safety Day is June 7, 2026
Every few years a number comes along that stops me cold, even after three decades of doing this work. This week, that
I have spent more than thirty years representing people whose lives were shattered by a single meal. I have sat across from parents in hospital waiting rooms, watched children in kidney failure, and held the hands of families who buried kids who just wanted a hamburger.
Many of the below criminal cases stemmed from outbreaks that sickened consumers that I had the honor to represent. It appears that the risk of criminal prosecution for food crimes is still real.
Between 2015 and 2021, E. coli O157-contaminated romaine was implicated in seven outbreaks in the United States, resulting in 4,274 laboratory-confirmed illnesses, 766 hospitalizations, and 11 deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Salmonella causes approximately 1.35 million illnesses, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States every year.
We are the wealthiest nation in the history of human civilization. We spend countless billions on wars, artificial intelligence, ballrooms and arches. We can make infant formula safe. We have chosen, thus far, not to do the hard regulatory work required to ensure it.