The guys begin the show by recommending two albums by Willie Nelson: Yesterday’s Wine and Half Nelson. The conversation moves quickly to the E. coli O157: H7 outbreak related to the chicken salad distributed by Costco. The celery and onion mix, provided by Taylor Farms, was the ingredient contaminated with the pathogen. The scope of the recall was large because it affected so many large retailers. Ben contrasted this recall with the Salmonella outbreak linked to Hershey chocolate in 2006. In that particular case, the supplier of soy lecithin was not revealed by the Canadian Food Inspection agency.
From there the talk turns to an FDA warning letter to Gold State Nut which cites the company president for handling nuts after touching his bearded dragon. A Salmonella outbreak in 2014 was linked to bearded dragons and resulting 166 illnesses.
The show switches gears when Don shares a hypothetical food safety regulatory scenario with Ben and asks how it would be regulated in North Carolina and New Jersey. Ben notes it would be regulated via a clarification memo. This leads to a discussion of home rule. Ben mentions outbreaks in Alabama and Maryland, linked to similar events. The podcast ends with talking about the movies Legal Eagles and Star Wars.
Ben and Don conclude by encouraging the listeners to rate Food Safety Talk in iTunes.