🍽️ 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

🍽️ 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 Mexico

0:10:29 The 2003 Hepatitis A outbreak in green onions

0:16:17 Beyond audits to a good culture of food safety

0:25:48 Humberto's work at Organically Grown Company

0:29:57 Food safety culture from field to C-suite

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

Resources from this episode

Read 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 Maldonado

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 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