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.

A janitorial contractor forged IDs for 336 of his 353 workers, and two dozen of them were children as young as 13, cleaning industrial equipment inside a Perdue Farms slaughterhouse. 

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine dig into a case that took six years to reach sentencing, exposing how easily child labor laws can be circumvented when a subcontractor controls the paperwork. Along the way, the story opens into a much bigger problem: stolen identities, the real people left cleaning up the damage, and what food companies should be asking their staffing vendors.

Hiring the cheapest staffing vendor might be costing you a lot more than you think.

In this episode:

00:00:57 Child Labor Laws in the Food Safety Industry
00:09:35 A Janitorial Manager’s Guilty Plea for Forged IDs
00:13:17 Why Slaughterhouses are No Place for Kids
00:18:50 Forged Licenses, Birth Certificates, and Stolen Social Security Numbers
00:23:58 Déjà Vu: The 2023 Packer Sanitation Services Case
00:25:54 Identity Theft Victims and Corporate Security Fallout

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
Take a look at the two articles we mentioned in this episode:
Sentence scheduled for former janitorial services manager who forged IDs for hundreds of workers
Workers for slaughterhouse cleaning firm that hired children repeatedly used stolen identities to get jobs

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“A slaughterhouse is not for children. These places are dangerous for adults. I'm not saying they should be shut down. I'm just saying you have to be 100% aware of your surroundings in a slaughterhouse.” – Matt Regusci

“It's like everything else. You get what you pay for.” – 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.

Rick Biros, founder of Food Safety Tech and the Food Safety Consortium, is back with our hosts Matt and Francine to make the case that food safety needs a new narrative — one built on ROI and recognition instead of checkbox culture, with buy-in that has to reach all the way up to the C-suite.

This episode of Don't Eat Poop! previews what's new at the 2026 Food Safety Consortium: a storytellers panel with Francine and Darin Detwiler, a brand-new award for food safety teams that can prove their bottom-line impact, and an update on the growing Women in Food Safety community.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Abstract Submissions for the Food Safety Consortium
00:03:55 Storytelling as a Food Safety Leadership Tool
00:07:04 The Real Food Safety Culture Challenge
00:12:19 The ROI of Food Safety
00:21:04 Introducing the Food Safety Tech Excellence Award
00:26:12 Women in Food Safety: Mentorship & Growth

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
Use the discount code POOP for 25% off your ticket to the 2026 Food Safety Consortium.

Enter the new Food Safety Tech Excellence Award at foodsafetytech.com 

Take a look at our previous episodes with Rick:
Behind the Scenes of the Food Safety Consortium: Curation, Speakers & 15 Years of Evolution with Rick Biros from Food Safety Tech | Episode 170
15 Years of Food Safety Tech: Food Safety Compliance vs Reality with Rick Biros | Episode 161
Behind the Scenes at the Food Safety Consortium with Rick Biros: Conference Culture, Compliance & Community | Episode 123

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“As a food safety community, we have to start changing the narrative about food safety. This is not just about compliance. Compliance should be the bare minimum. That's not what you shoot for. That's the floor. That should be expected.” – Rick Biros

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 FIFA World Cup is coming to Atlanta, and with it, up to 10 million visitors, thousands of temporary food vendors, and a food safety infrastructure that is already stretched thin.

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Francine and Matt pull apart the logistics of feeding a city-sized surge of international fans, from inspecting pop-up tents in 100-degree heat to the very real norovirus scenario that could turn one food truck into a multi-city outbreak. 

When you pack 10 million people into a city with 28 health inspectors on the clock, something is going to fall through the cracks — the question is how much.

In this episode:

00:00:00 World Cup in Atlanta: The Numbers
00:09:25 Atlanta Health Inspectors’ Impossible Workload
00:16:01 Potential Novovirus Scenarios
00:17:59 Temperature Control and Food Safety Blind Spots
00:25:27 The Reality of Food Safety Inspections
00:28:42 Approved Vendors and Traceability
00:37:39 Atlanta is Preparing for the World Cup

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
Take a look at the article we’re talking about in this episode: Atlanta health inspectors prepare restaurants and vendors for World Cup crowds

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ Moral of the story is do not be a jerk to your health inspector.” – Matt Regusci

“The volume of people is one thing. [...] So now they've got to inspect all these temporary vendors that are gonna come in to be permitted for the World Cup.” – 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.

The federal government has a plan to overhaul how food chemicals are regulated in America, but the states got there first. In Episode 171 of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine dig into Dr. David Acheson's opinion piece on who should own authority over GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) additives, and whether the proposed FRESH Act is a real solution or just another Band-Aid on a broken system.

From California's Prop 65 to a patchwork of 50 different state regulations, the episode unpacks why consistency matters and why trusting the federal government to deliver it is easier said than done.

Spoiler alert: If the feds can't get it done, third-party certifications will fill the gap. And that's not necessarily the win consumers are hoping for.

In this episode:

00:00:00 Dr. David Acheson: Who Should Own GRAS Authority?
00:07:07 Patchwork Regulation Fails Manufacturers
00:15:55 State vs. Federal Departments
00:20:00 The FRESH Act & Federal Preemption
00:22:21 The Organic Certification Parallel
00:26:52 MAHA & Food Safety Politics

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

Resources from this episode
Take a look at the article we discussed in this episode: GRAS, additives, chemicals: Who should hold the authority? By Dr. David Acheson

Food Safety Compliance Chaos: FDA Redactions, Conflicts of Interest & Mango Mayhem | Episode 165

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ If Clean Label Project ceased to exist because the federal government did their job really, really well, that would be our goal.” – Matt Regusci

“Certifications have become so watered down. They don't mean what they once did.” – 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.

Most conferences just recycle the same speakers on the same topics every year. Food Safety Consortium is trying to do something different, and the process behind it is more rigorous than you might expect.

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine sit down with Rick Biros, founder of Food Safety Consortium and Food Safety Tech, to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a food safety conference worth attending. From the call for abstracts to curating diverse panels to scoring speaker submissions on educational value, this is the insider scoop most attendees never get.

Spoiler alert: Great food safety conferences don't happen by accident.
In this episode:

00:00:00 What Makes the Food Safety Consortium Stand Out
00:06:42 Consortium vs. Food Safety Hazards
00:08:29 The Role of Policy in Food Safety Topics Covered
00:10:25 Speaker Selection: Abstracts, Scoring, Curation
00:16:32 The Submission Numbers
00:18:25 Preview: A Global Food Safety Audit Study
00:23:22 How Different Learning Styles Shape Conference Programming
00:27:19 Rick on Life Outside the Food Safety Conference World

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode

Connect with Rick Biros here.

Take a look at our previous episodes with Rick:
Behind the Scenes at the Food Safety Consortium with Rick Biros: Conference Culture, Compliance & Community | Episode 123
15 Years of Food Safety Tech: Food Safety Compliance vs Reality with Rick Biros | Episode 161

Use code POOP for 25% off registration for the Food Safety Consortium.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“How do we go to food safety conferences with the first word food and get such awful food? [...] We take great pride in serving good food.” – Rick Biros

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
_______