Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.
👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are celebrating the podcast's 3 Year Anniversary with a blast from the past: the salmon in the dishwasher, the podcast's first inside joke.

If you've been listening for a while, you probably know that cooking your salmon in the dishwasher is a BAD idea. Now, tune in to discover all the other things that people put in their dishwashers and what experts have to say about it.

Thank you for listening, and here’s to another year of the Don’t Eat Poop! Podcast.

In this episode:
0:00:00 A party trick for your Super Bowl watch party
0:07:18 Why cooking in a dishwasher is a BAD idea
0:15:36 Part 1: Strangest things put in dishwashers
0:19:07 Questionable ways to thaw poultry and more
0:23:56 Part 2: Strangest things put in dishwashers
Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode
Catch up with our "fun" episode from a couple of weeks ago, Episode 153.

Watch the Netflix series about the Australian lady who killed in-laws with Beef Wellington.

Learn more about Norovirus at the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics on this LinkedIn post by Francine.

Find the full Consumer Reports Matt and Francine are referring to here.

Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen? for more crazy stories people shared during training.

 Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ Appliances are designed to perform specific tasks quickly and efficiently, so take advice from the people who make the dishwashers and leave [the food] to the cooking ranges and ovens. Amen.” – Matt Regusci

“ When I was training, I had people tell me that they thawed their poultry in the dryer. Can you imagine a turkey tumbling in your clothing dryer?” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!
Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.
_______
Produced by Ideablossoms

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.
👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are highlighting Azure Edwards's latest opinion piece on Food Safety News, "The food industry’s training problem is the system it keeps paying for".

She raises crucial points that our hosts have also been talking about for a while, such as the importance of having a strong food safety culture, the real financial impact of weak training and systems, how audits and certifications are not enough, and more.

In this episode:
0:00:00 The food safety industry's training failures
0:08:45 How food safety culture weakens under pressure
0:14:14 What is missing from food safety training 
0:18:05 The risks of transactional food safety
0:20:19 What makes a company successful long-term
0:27:03 The real importance of ethics and integrity
Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode
Read the Food Safety News opinion piece by Azure Edwards that Matt and Francine refer to in this episode.

For a look into the real cost of food safety failures, catch up with Episode 152.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ I love that she uses the temporary workers and the seasonal workers as a stress test for your food safety culture. If there's an issue with your facility during these peak times, it's not your seasonal and temporary workers that are the issue. It's your systems that are the issue.” – Matt Regusci

“ I've always said the one thing that nobody can take from you is integrity. You do that yourself.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!
Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.
_______
Produced by Ideablossoms

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.
👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are taking a detour from food poisoning to actual poison in food. 
Our hosts hadn't done any episodes about people getting intentionally killed with food in a long time, and Francine, our resident murder-mystery aficionado, made sure it got back in the lineup.
Tune in for the Thanksgiving from hell case, where a mother poisoned her children's wine, and a throwback to the poison mushroom beef Wellington case.

In this episode:
0:00:00 Someone did kill their loved ones this time
0:03:53 The poison mushroom beef Wellington murders
0:07:49 How a mother killed her family on Thanksgiving
0:15:09 Premeditation and getting away with murder
0:21:21 Our fascination with how criminal minds work
Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode
Learn all about the Thanksgiving from Hell case here.

Hear more about the Australian lady who tried to kill her in-laws with beef Wellington on Episode 38.

In case you needed a reminder, catch up with Episode 95 | Don’t Kill Your Loved Ones During the Holidays and Episode 146 | Seriously, Don’t Kill Your Loved Ones During the Holidays.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“To put this chemical in wine and give it to your children and one of their children's boyfriends at a Thanksgiving dinner. That is a whole new level of evil to me.” – Matt Regusci

“ She's a restaurateur. How much has she potentially gotten away with in 20 years? That is scary. If she's willing to do this to her own children, who else might she be willing to do this to, potentially?” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!
Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.
_______
Produced by Ideablossoms

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.
👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are talking about some very high, but also very preventable, costs: those resulting from foodborne illnesses.

Our hosts are unpacking the Cost Estimates of Foodborne Illnesses data for 2023, released by the USDA in December 2025. You'll learn the real cost of diseases such as Salmonella, Norovirus, Listeria, Botulism, and more.

In this episode:
0:03:38 Norovirus: largest number of cases
0:08:54 Salmonella: greatest overall cost
0:11:19 E.coli, Botulism, Vibrio: surprising numbers
0:13:07 Listeria: fewer cases, deadly costs
0:23:10 How to get buy-in for food safety initiatives

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode
Read the Marler Blog article Matt and Francine refer to in this episode.

Check out Francine's QSR Magazine 2018 article on the cost of foodborne illness.

Catch up with Episode 144 | Apparently, a Little Salmonella in Poultry is Okay. But Should It Really Be?

Also listen to Episode 122 | Listeria’s Lasting Damage: A Food Safety Wake-Up Call

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ You have an easier chance of getting a one on a roll of a dice than surviving Listeriosis. It is like one in three, one in four, depending upon the outbreak. So you have a 25% to 33% chance of death when you get Listeriosis. Not good.” – Matt Regusci

“ Those are the things that people don't think about. They see these numbers. These are numbers on our screens at this point. People see numbers, and they hear statistics [but] these are human lives.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!
Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.
_______
Produced by Ideablossoms

🍽️ Francine and Matt are building a global, fun, and inclusive Food Safety Family! From the C-suite to the kitchen, they’re making safe food the norm everywhere.
👉 Follow Francine and Matt on LinkedIn for more food safety insights and updates.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are back from their quick holiday break and are ready to tackle the brand-new 2026 food pyramid.

With their special brand of humor, they walk through each of the four iterations of the visual American dietary guidelines over the years and what they mean for Americans.

In this episode:

0:00:00 Holiday break update and misplaced keys
0:11:07 The 1992-2005 food pyramid and its impacts
0:17:21 The confusing 2005-2011 MyPyramid
0:19:37 The 2011-2026 MyPlate (not actually a pyramid)
0:23:28 The 2026 upside-down food pyramid
0:34:32 Will this change how people eat?

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode
Catch up with Episode 146 | Seriously, Don’t Kill Your Loved Ones During the Holidays, where Matt talked about his dread over traveling with his entire family over the holidays.

Check out Frank Yiannas' LinkedIn post with the evolution of the food pyramid over time.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ I do not disagree with this new pyramid. It's basically my diet. What I do disagree with is [that] it doesn't make it easy for someone to look at this and go, 'Oh, this is how I am supposed to eat.' There's nothing really easy about it.” – Matt Regusci

“'0 5 to '11 looks like they just took the colors of the rainbow, tossed them together in a mountainous type setting, and threw a bunch of food at the bottom of it.” – Francine L Shaw

We hope you enjoy this episode!
Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Together, we can raise awareness and make a positive impact in the world of food safety!

Share your thoughts and feedback on the show, and feel free to offer any topics you would like to hear discussed.

We'd love to hear from you!

📲 Connect with Francine, Matt, and the "Don't Eat Poop!" show on LinkedIn!

📕 Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen?

🎙️ BE A GUEST ON DON’T EAT POOP!

Fill out this form to tell us more about yourself. We’ll reach out via email within 30 days with next steps if you’re selected.
_______
Produced by Ideablossoms