Opinion & Contributed Articles

Normalization of deviance: The real lesson of this summer's Cyclospora outbreak

– OPINION –

/ 10 Aug 2026

Normalization of deviance: The real lesson of this summer's Cyclospora outbreak

Publisher’s Platform: I Have Been Told I Am Too Hard on Industry and on the Government. Here Are Fifteen Things They Could Do About Cyclospora.

I have watched administrations of both parties handle outbreaks badly. What is different this time is not the mistakes. What is different is that three weeks into the largest Cyclospora outbreak this country has ever recorded, nobody at the top has said the number out loud.

By Bill Marler

/ 7 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: I Have Been Told I Am Too Hard on Industry and on the Government. Here Are Fifteen Things They Could Do About Cyclospora.

Publisher’s Platform: Recall readiness is assumed, never measured

The people who price the risk can change that.

By Bill Marler

/ 7 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: Recall readiness is assumed, never measured

Publisher's Platform: Two Countries Are Now Warning Their Citizens About Travel to the United States. Britain Traced Forty-Eight of Its Cases to Mexico. The Cyclospora Count Is Still 22,683.

The UK Health Security Agency published new figures on July 30. Sixty-seven people in England, Scotland and Wales were reported with cyclosporiasis between April 30 and July 15 of

By Bill Marler

/ 4 Aug 2026

Publisher's Platform: Two Countries Are Now Warning Their Citizens About Travel to the United States. Britain Traced Forty-Eight of Its Cases to Mexico. The Cyclospora Count Is Still 22,683.

Publisher's Platform: Food safety is not expensive. Outbreaks are expensive.

USDA says Cyclospora costs America $5.3 million a year. The program I want restored cost $4.5 million a year. This summer alone has already blown past both.

By Bill Marler

/ 3 Aug 2026

Publisher's Platform: Food safety is not expensive. Outbreaks are expensive.

Publisher’s Platform: The T-Shirts Arrived. All of Them Say: Test Infant Formula for Botulism.

A t-shirt in a plastic bottle will not produce one either. But it is small, it is strange, it does not throw away easily, and it says the entire argument in one line. Sometime in September a staffer is going to unroll one and read it out loud. That is the whole idea.

By Bill Marler

/ 2 Aug 2026

Publisher’s Platform: The T-Shirts Arrived. All of Them Say: Test Infant Formula for Botulism.

Publisher's Platform: The Fifty-State Cyclospora count is 20,927 this morning. The President has said one thing about it. The Secretary says it is under control. Here is what they should have said instead.

Ohio released new numbers today — 4,013 cases in 80 counties, up from 2,576 a week ago. Add the states up, one by one, all fifty of them, and the floor under this outbreak this morning is 20,927 people.

By Bill Marler

/ 31 Jul 2026

Publisher's Platform: The Fifty-State Cyclospora count is 20,927 this morning. The President has said one thing about it. The Secretary says it is under control. Here is what they should have said instead.

Publisher's Platform: The FDA closed the 2024 romaine E. coli outbreak without naming Taylor Farms. Sixteen months later we are counting 18,000 Cyclospora cases

Transparency is not a courtesy the government extends to a consumer standing in a produce aisle when it happens to be convenient. It is a record.

By Bill Marler

/ 29 Jul 2026

Publisher's Platform: The FDA closed the 2024 romaine E. coli outbreak without naming Taylor Farms. Sixteen months later we are counting 18,000 Cyclospora cases

Publisher's Platform: The lettuce pitchforks are out -- 7 letters in 14 days

Not one of these letters has been publicly answered

By Bill Marler

/ 29 Jul 2026

Publisher's Platform: The lettuce pitchforks are out -- 7 letters in 14 days

Publisher's Platform: There is no kill step for Cyclospora

The best consumer-level data is a 2021 study in Foods . . . nothing removed all of it. These oocysts are stickier than Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

By Bill Marler

/ 27 Jul 2026

Publisher's Platform: There is no kill step for Cyclospora

Signs of the Times

Tucked among the boutiques, bars and novelty shops were storefront signs that had nothing to do with tourism and everything to do with the national conversation surrounding food safety.

By Darin Detwiler

/ 27 Jul 2026

Publisher's Platform: Does a public swimming complex adjacent to Taylor Farms lettuce operation pose a Cyclospora threat? Probably.

Two hundred and thirty-five meters from the processing building — roughly eight hundred feet, a three-minute walk — sits Balneario Las Fajanas, a public thermal-water bathing complex with pools, water slides, changing rooms, showers, grills and picnic shelters, open every day of the year.

By Bill Marler

/ 24 Jul 2026

Publisher's Platform: Does a public swimming complex adjacent to Taylor Farms lettuce operation pose a Cyclospora threat? Probably.

Your Support Protects Public Health

Food Safety News is nonprofit and reader-funded. Your TAX-FREE gift ensures ongoing coverage of outbreaks, recalls, and regulations for everyone.

Donate Today

About FSN

Sign Up for Free FSN Weekly Newsletter

Trusted by 45,000+ food safety leaders, regulators, and professionals.

Opinion & Contributed Articles

Normalization of deviance: The real lesson of this summer's Cyclospora outbreak

Publisher’s Platform: I Have Been Told I Am Too Hard on Industry and on the Government. Here Are Fifteen Things They Could Do About Cyclospora.

Publisher’s Platform: Recall readiness is assumed, never measured

Publisher's Platform: Two Countries Are Now Warning Their Citizens About Travel to the United States. Britain Traced Forty-Eight of Its Cases to Mexico. The Cyclospora Count Is Still 22,683.

Publisher's Platform: Food safety is not expensive. Outbreaks are expensive.

Publisher’s Platform: The T-Shirts Arrived. All of Them Say: Test Infant Formula for Botulism.

Publisher's Platform: The Fifty-State Cyclospora count is 20,927 this morning. The President has said one thing about it. The Secretary says it is under control. Here is what they should have said instead.

Publisher's Platform: The FDA closed the 2024 romaine E. coli outbreak without naming Taylor Farms. Sixteen months later we are counting 18,000 Cyclospora cases

Publisher's Platform: The lettuce pitchforks are out -- 7 letters in 14 days

Publisher's Platform: There is no kill step for Cyclospora

Signs of the Times

Publisher's Platform: Does a public swimming complex adjacent to Taylor Farms lettuce operation pose a Cyclospora threat? Probably.

Your Support Protects Public Health