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.

Everybody knows the food safety rules. So why do we keep screwing this up? 

After a summer shaped by the Taylor Farms Cyclospora outbreak, Francine and Matt dig into whether the real problem is training, behavior, leadership, or culture. They use Taylor Farms, Taco Bell, and Chipotle to show where accountability really lands and how to win buy-in from the people who make the decisions.

Spoiler alert: Knowing the rules has never been the problem. Getting people to buy in is.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Three Years, 186 Episodes of Food Safety 
💩 00:03:05 Training vs. Behavior vs. Leadership vs. Culture
💩 00:06:47 Taylor Farms Food Safety Culture
💩 00:10:53 The Parent Company Owns the Outbreak
💩 00:14:17 Food Safety Culture from Corporate to Facilities
💩 00:16:41 Hiring for the Right Food Safety Behaviors
💩 00:21:41 Fire Them or Move Them? Positional vs. Personal Influence
💩 00:27:39 Building Food Safety Buy-In From the Middle
💩 00:30:16 Where Food Safety Pros Fail 
💩 00:33:11 Speaking the Language of the CEO, CFO, and COO
💩 00:36:36 Cadence and Dialect Matter in Food Safety Communication
💩 00:44:04 No Food Safety Culture Without Leadership

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

Resources from this episode
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg: https://www.amazon.com/dp/081298160X 
Missed last week's conspiracy talk? Catch up here: https://savvyfs.com/largest-cyclospora-outbreak-in-us-history-over-what-the-cdc-isnt-saying-episode-185/ 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
"Everybody knows the rules, so why do we keep screwing this up?" – Francine L. Shaw
"Most of the time you can't play by the rules to change a culture." – Matt Regusci

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.

The largest Cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history is over, according to an anonymous federal official who told a reporter before anyone told the public. The CDC's own outbreak page still says "open." In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop, Matt and Francine dig into the numbers nobody's updating and ask a question they've never asked in 185 episodes: is this incompetence, or something worse?

This episode breaks down the outbreak data agencies stopped counting, the consumer trust numbers still falling, and the case for and against a full-blown conspiracy.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Cyclospora Outbreak Declared "Over" 
💩 00:08:21 The Outbreak Numbers Nobody's Updating
💩 00:11:19 Consumer Confidence In Free Fall
💩 00:13:03 Congress Sends 13 Letters, Gets Zero Cyclospora Outbreak Answers
💩 00:16:05 Incompetence or Food Safety Conspiracy
💩 00:20:54 Is The Whole Food System Broken?
💩 00:23:08 Could Someone Be Weaponizing A Broken System?
💩 00:36:45 How Matt Got A Broken Industry To Adopt Compliance

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

Resources from this episode
Check out Bill Marler’s article discussed in this episode:
Unnamed Federal Officials Told the Washington Post They Are About to Declare the Largest Cyclospora Outbreak in U.S. History Over. The National Count Is Still Climbing, 8,137 Confirmed Illnesses Have No Named Source, and Congress Is Still Waiting for an Answer.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
"If you don't count [the victims], they don't matter. They don't exist." – Francine L Shaw

"This is either absolute pure incompetence, or it's a conspiracy, and I could believe in both, or both simultaneously." – Matt Regusci

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.

Over 30,000 confirmed Cyclospora cases this summer, and the CDC's own math says the real number could be over a million. So why did it take so long to get straight answers about where it came from?

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine tear into the Cyclospora outbreak tied to Taylor Farms lettuce and Taco Bell, and the industry-wide habit of pointing fingers instead of fixing problems. They break down how the contamination likely happened, why Taylor Farms' size makes it nearly impossible to avoid its product, and what Roger Hancock's crisis-communication playbook gets right.

Spoiler alert: the companies that survive an outbreak aren't the ones that dodge blame, they're the ones that communicate fast and own it.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 The Food Safety Blame Game
💩 00:08:51 The Real Cyclospora Outbreak Numbers
💩 00:11:10 How Cyclospora Likely Got Onto The Lettuce
💩 00:13:52 Taylor Farms, Private Label Confusion, And Dodging Blame
💩 00:17:37 Article: What Restaurants Can Learn From The Lettuce Recall
💩 00:21:43 Supply Chain Consolidation And "Too Big To Fail"
💩 00:26:02 Restaurant Recall Plan: Communicate Quickly And Clearly, Or Lose Consumer Trust
💩 00:30:49 Taco Bell Vs. Taylor Farms: A Case Study In Doing It Right
💩 00:33:36 Why Mock Recalls Fall Apart Under Pressure

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
What Restaurants Can Learn From the Lettuce Recall:  https://www.fsrmagazine.com/feature/what-restaurants-can-learn-from-the-lettuce-recall/ 

Episodes with Roger Hancock:
Creating a Recall-Ready Food Safety Industry | Episode 42
All Recalls Are Not the Same, But Here’s How You Can Be Ready For When One Comes with Roger Hancock, CEO of Recall InfoLink | Episode 114
How the FDA Wants YOU to Fix Food Safety Recalls with Roger Hancock, CEO of Recall InfoLink | Episode 126

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“Today's topic is the food safety blame game, and the industry has been doing this probably since its inception.” – Matt Regusci

“Can we just stop arguing about whose fault it was and try to figure it out?” – 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.

Cyclospora cases have topped 30,000. Eggs, jalapeños, blueberries, and infant formula are all being recalled at the same time. In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine ask the question everyone's TikTok feed is already joking about: is there anything left in the food pyramid that hasn't been recalled?

The episode walks through every major outbreak of the summer, one pathogen at a time, before digging into the supply chain quirk (the terminal market) that makes some recalls nearly impossible to fully contain.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 The New Food Pyramid
💩 00:05:16 2026 Outbreak Update by Pathogen
💩 00:09:21 Driscoll And The PFAS Strawberry Whistleblower
💩 00:11:02 The Egg Recall: 19 Million Eggs
💩 00:14:01 Salmonella In Jalapeños Hits Over Two Dozen States
💩 00:17:28 How Consolidation Created The Terminal Market Workaround
💩 00:21:51 Who's Liable When A Recall Traces Back To A Terminal Market
💩 00:29:52 Starbucks Sandwiches And A Trunk Full Of Egg Salad

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

Resources from this episode
The FDA Is Investigating 11 Foodborne Outbreaks Right Now — Here’s What to Know About Each One: https://www.foodandwine.com/fda-foodborne-outbreak-investigations-12034027 

CDC Current Outbreaks: https://www.cdc.gov/foodborne-outbreaks/outbreaks/index.html 

Get the Facts: Is the number of food recalls rising? What data shows: https://www.kcra.com/article/us-food-recalls-trend-analysis/73415731 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“Francine and I do not lack content, but we would really like it if these outbreaks came out every other month or so, so we could keep up with them.” – Matt Regusci

“We'd be talking about the eggs right now if the lettuce wasn't so bad because the eggs are bad, too. The lettuce is so bad that the eggs are kinda just sliding under the radar.” – 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.

Nearly 21,000 Americans are confirmed sick with Cyclospora, and three different government sources can't agree on the actual number. When the administration finally addressed it, the best they offered was a joke. In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine break down what accountability was supposed to look like, and the eight concrete fixes still sitting on someone's desk.

They walk through the math behind the conflicting case counts, why the government's own numbers may be undercounting sick Americans by a factor of 10 or more, and the specific policy changes that could stop the next outbreak from disappearing into a spreadsheet.

Spoiler alert: the real number of people sick could be well over a million, and nobody in Washington wants to say so.

In this episode:

💩 00:00:00 Bill Marler's Article: Govt’s Response to Cyclospora
💩 00:06:09 CDC's Three Conflicting Case Counts
💩 00:08:32 The Government’s Flawed Food Safety Advice
💩 00:09:48 The White House's Silence So Far
💩 00:11:15 Extrapolating The Cyclospora Case Count
💩 00:13:42 Eight Recommended Fixes For The FDA
💩 00:19:51 Reviving The Microbiological Data Program
💩 00:24:48 FSMA 204 And The Water Rule
💩 00:29:06 The Economic Cost Of Outbreaks

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

Resources from this episode
Use the code POOP for 25% off the Food Safety Consortium Conference: https://www.eventleaf.com/e/FoodSafetyConsortium 
Check out the article we’re discussing in this episode: 
Food Safety News: 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.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ I do believe the states should be able to make their own laws, but I do think that the federal government should also have laws pertaining to food safety, and those laws should be statistics.” – Matt Regusci

“Food safety's not political. We're talking about people's well-being.” – 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
_______