In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by Bill Marler, the nation's leading foodborne illness attorney, to discuss some of the major outbreaks of 2024 (so far) and there are many.

According to Matt, it feels like the industry, in terms of a lot of amazing brands, decided to throw their brands into a dumpster, put gasoline on it, and light a fricking match over the last six months.

They talk about the Boar’s Head Listeria outbreak, the McDonald's Quarter Pounders E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, and the Grimmway Farms carrots E. coli O121:H19 outbreak.

As well as some you probably haven’t heard of like the Andre’s Banquet Center E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, the Wolverine Packing Co. E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, and the Montana Wagyu Beef E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.

In this episode:

💩 [02:09] Diving deep into one outbreak or talking about them all?

💩 [03:26] The many major outbreaks of 2024

💩 [05:27] Stories of grief from Bill’s clients

💩 [08:36] Boar’s Head Listeria outbreak

💩 [10:59] McDonald's Quarter Pounders E. coli O157:H7 outbreak

💩 [12:35] Food safety in the board of directors

💩 [14:06] McDonald’s poor response to their outbreak

💩 [18:18] Chi-Chi’s 2003 Hepatitis A outbreak

💩 [19:22] How companies respond to outbreaks

💩 [20:44] Iwaspoisoned.com and Bill’s strong ethics

💩 [21:57] The cost of food safety headlines for McDonald’s

💩 [22:57] Grimmway Farms carrots E. coli O121:H19 outbreak

💩 [29:14] The resurgence of undercooked E. coli-laced hamburger outbreaks

💩 [33:55] Where food safety liability lies

💩 [35:18] How to calibrate a thermometer

💩 [36:24] Every outbreak could and should have been prevented

💩 [38:28] The one who holds the industry accountable

💩 [39:51] “Get the F out of the FDA” shirts and Thanksgiving wishes

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

Resources from this episode
Read Dr. Darin Detwiler’s article Matt mentioned Anticipating the inevitable: Predicting the next major food safety failure.

Visit Bill Marler’s blog at marlerblog.com.

Watch this short video about one of the victims of the 2011 Listeria outbreak posted by Marler Clark.

Check out the post by Patrick Quade, founder of Iwaspoisoned.com, about The Cost of Food Safety Headlines: 2024 McDonald's Edition.

Catch up with past Bill Marler episodes:

Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“We all are going to die. I get it. I think the thing that drives me the craziest about death in food cases is people live their entire lives, and then all of a sudden, they eat something, and it kills them, or it kills their child, kills their spouse. It's just not the way it's supposed to be.” – Bill Marler

We hope you enjoy this episode!
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Check out Francine's book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!

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Produced by Ideablossoms

Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast

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