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.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 Numbers00:09:25 Atlanta Health Inspectors’ Impossible Workload00:16:01 Potential Novovirus Scenarios00:17:59 Temperature Control and Food Safety Blind Spots00:25:27 The Reality of Food Safety Inspections00:28:42 Approved Vendors and Traceability00:37:39 Atlanta is Preparing for the World CupDisclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.Resources from this episodeTake a look at the article we’re talking about in this episode: Atlanta health inspectors prepare restaurants and vendors for World Cup crowdsNoteworthy 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 ShawWe 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 failures0:08:45 How food safety culture weakens under pressure0:14:14 What is missing from food safety training 0:18:05 The risks of transactional food safety0:20:19 What makes a company successful long-term0:27:03 The real importance of ethics and integrityDisclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.Resources from this episodeRead 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 ShawWe 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 cases0:08:54 Salmonella: greatest overall cost0:11:19 E.coli, Botulism, Vibrio: surprising numbers0:13:07 Listeria: fewer cases, deadly costs0:23:10 How to get buy-in for food safety initiativesDisclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.Resources from this episodeRead 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 CallNoteworthy 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 ShawWe 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 joined by produce safety veteran Humberto Maldonado, the Director of Safety and Compliance at Organically Grown Company, straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025.Humberto shares lessons from his 20+ years in produce safety. Starting out with the 2003 Hepatitis A green onion outbreak at the beginning of his food safety career, to his time at Driscoll's Mexico navigating auditors and growers, and his newer role.Get ready for an episode packed with food safety wisdom and practical ways to build a culture of food safety from the field all the way to the C-suite.In this episode:0:00:00 Audits and certifications at Driscoll's Mexico0:10:29 The 2003 Hepatitis A outbreak in green onions0:16:17 Beyond audits to a good culture of food safety0:25:48 Humberto's work at Organically Grown Company0:29:57 Food safety culture from field to C-suiteDisclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.Resources from this episodeRead about the 2003 Hepatitis A Outbreak Associated with Green Onions here.Learn more about the Organically Grown Company.Noteworthy quotes from this episode“One of the pushbacks I always received was, 'This is too complex for the growers to understand. This is too complex for the harvest crew people to understand.' That's not true. We are the ones making things complex. You can explain complex things in a simple way, so keep it simple.” – Humberto MaldonadoWe 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 Humberto, 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 looking back before they look forward in this new year. They are unpacking an article from February 2025 that shares some worrisome stats about foodborne illness, outbreaks, hospitalizations, and deaths from contaminated food in 2024, all of which increased significantly from the previous year.In this episode:0:00:00 When distances are relative0:07:07 A recap of food recalls in 20240:13:43 Key findings on foodborne illnesses0:18:06 If you don't test for it, it's not thereTune back in next week for the episode where our hosts talk about the article on how the government is looking to shut down some key food safety acts and rules.Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.Resources from this episodeRead the Food for Thought 2025 article Matt and Francine refer to in this episode.Correction: chickens fly at 175 birds per minute, not 175 miles per hour, in US poultry processing plants. You can learn more about these worrisome speeds on Episode 110.As for the acceptable levels of Salmonella in poultry, you can check out Episode 144.For a Recap of 2024’s Major Outbreaks with Bill Marler, listen to Episode 92, and for one of the major outbreaks from the first half of 2025, catch up with Episode 129.Hear more about what it's like to get listeria and survive it in the gut-wrenching Episode 122.Learn the basics of the ByHeart Infant Botulism Outbreak linked to their baby formula, check out Episode 147.Noteworthy quotes from this episode“ If we're looking at why 13 [outbreaks] accounted for 98% of the hospitalizations and deaths. It's because 22% of the recalls came from Listeria. That is crazy.” – Matt Regusci“ It's mind-boggling that they are shutting down food safety programs one after another, agencies, and just different things throughout the course of the year, and foodborne illnesses are increasing.” – Francine L ShawWe 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