Saturday, September 19, 2026
This is the eleventh Saturday column. Last Saturday’s edition ran under the headline CDC Closed the Largest Cyclospora Outbreak in American History at 12,883 Sick; its point was that closed is not the same as answered. This week
A Salmonella outbreak linked to pet turtles has more than doubled in six weeks. In its September 18, 2026 update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 20 sick people in 12 states, up from 8 children in 6 states
Helena Bottemiller Evich’s Friday edition of Food Fix made an argument I have been making in pieces all summer, and she made it in one clean sweep: Congress has stopped doing its job. When she had me on her American
As of September 15, 2026, CDC counts 19,883 laboratory-confirmed Cyclospora infections acquired in the United States between May 1 and August 31, with 1,064 hospitalizations and two deaths in forty-nine states and the District of Columbia. CDC ended the outbreak linked
Gias Foods, Inc. of New York has recalled bettergoods Authentic Italian Lemon Alfredo Fettuccine, a 22-ounce frozen pasta meal sold at Walmart stores nationwide, because Washington and Florida state agriculture labs found Listeria monocytogenes in finished product. The recall covers lot codes
Ten people, restaurant employees and customers among them, have been sickened with Salmonella in a cluster tied to Woods Hill Table, the farm-to-table restaurant on Commonwealth Avenue in West Concord, Massachusetts. Concord’s public health director began investigating on September 8, 2026, the
On September 15, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) posted a white paper marking twenty years since the 2006 spinach outbreak that led to its creation. It is called “Twenty Years of Progress,” and its executive summary ends on
De Ann Davis, senior vice president of science at the Western Growers Association, published a piece on August 31 arguing that FDA outbreak communication is itself a food safety tool and needs to work better. I missed it when
I have spent more than 30 years representing people sickened by contaminated food. I do not often read a speech by an FDA official and find myself agreeing with nearly every line. This week I did.
Dr. Donna Garren, director
Woods Hill Table, the farm-to-table restaurant on Commonwealth Avenue in West Concord, Massachusetts, closed on September 16, 2026 while town and state health officials investigate a cluster of Salmonella infections. As of September 17, ten people had been reported ill, both
