The list keeps getting longer, and regulators are getting slower and slower.
I have spent more than 30 years representing people who have been failed by food systems. Children receiving dialysis after eating hamburgers. Grandparents who ate a scoop of ice cream and never came home from the hospital. A pregnant woman who lost her baby because of a sandwich. After all these cases, testimonies and funerals, we will no longer think of food safety as an abstract concept. You make a short list of things you won’t say and don’t apologize for it.
People constantly ask me for that list. So here’s the update for 2026, with a few additions I never thought I’d have to make.
Start with Raw milk and raw milk cheese. Pasteurization is one of the great public health triumphs of the 20th century, and the choice to undo it from our kitchen counters is simply incomprehensible. I’ve represented too many young children suffering from hemolytic uremic syndrome from a glass of “natural” milk to think this is an argument about personal freedom. To make a philosophical point, this is a debate about whether you would be willing to put a four-year-old on the kidney transplant list.
next, Raw oysters and clams. Vibrio doesn’t care how clean the restaurant is or how cold the ice is. If the water in which the oysters were grown was warm, you’re rolling the dice with a pathogen that can kill an immunocompromised person within 48 hours. I love the Pacific Northwest as much as anyone. I just boil oysters and eat them.
Then there Pre-washed and packaged leafy vegetables. “Triple-washed” is marketing, not microbiology. Romaine, spinach and spring mix became more popular sauces. E. coli There are countless outbreaks of O157:H7 and Listeria. I bought the whole head and washed it myself, but I still think twice.
add raw bean sprouts—Alfalfa, green beans, clover, it doesn’t matter. The warm, moist conditions that allow seeds to germinate are the conditions in which seeds grow. salmonella and E. coli throw a party There have been dozens of outbreaks. There will be more.
then undercooked hamburger. Order it medium-well or well-done at a restaurant and use a thermometer at home (165 degrees). Pathogens live on intact wound surfaces, but the grinder pulls them out through the entire patty. Pink Burger was a gamble they stopped taking after Jack in the Box in 1993, and they have no plans to start again.
finish it off Raw or runny eggs and Unpasteurized juices and ciders. Salmonella Enteritidis Because they live inside the egg as well as the egg shell, Caesar dressing, hollandaise, homemade eggnog, and runny yolks for the kids are all missing. And the technology to make juice safely has been around for 160 years. Please use it.
The original list was like that. Here’s what I’ve had to add over the years:
Deli meats and soft cheeses, especially for pregnant women and the elderly.. The boar’s head listeria disaster of 2024 (10 people died, mold, insects and meat residue were found on Virginia plants, and federal inspectors passed by them for years) was no exception. It was a system that worked exactly the way it always did, until the bodies piled up and no one intervened. Now I treat the deli counter with the same care I treat the raw oyster bar.
Melons and other net melons. In 2011, 33 people died at Jensen Farms from the following drugs: Listeria On the shell. that salmonella In 2023, more people died from outbreaks linked to imported melons. Rough skin harbors pathogens, and the knife draws them directly into the flesh. If I eat one, I scrub it with a brush, dry it, and cut it carefully, but most people don’t pay much attention to it.
Raw wheat flour and raw cookie dough. People are surprised by this. Flour is a raw agricultural product. It is not treated against pathogens. There were several locations across the country. E. coli Outbreaks associated with flour and cake mix. Take a risk and lick the spoon.
imported frozen berries. Hepatitis A in frozen strawberries and blackberries has made healthy people eligible for liver transplants. I cook it into something now. I don’t eat straight from the bag.
Bulb onions and fresh herbs such as cilantro and basil. 2024 McDonald’s Quarter Pounder E. coli The outbreak has been traced back to sliced onions. repeated Cyclospore Illnesses related to cilantro and basil continue to occur every year. In many countries, these foods are handled by many hands before being put on a plate and are almost always eaten raw. I’m wary of restaurants that actively do laundry and don’t allow me to see the preparation process.
Powdered infant formula for the youngest infants. Cronobacter sakazakii is rare but can be fatal to newborns. The 2022 Abbott recall should have been a wake-up call to reform the entire infant formula industry. It wasn’t like that. Just look at the recent botulism outbreak. For premature babies and infants under 2 months of age, families should recommend ready-to-feed liquid formula or, if possible, breast milk.
Enoki mushrooms and other imported specialty mushrooms. Quietly, these led to a series of consequences. Listeria I recall something almost no one has talked about over the years. Before the FDA gets serious, they’ll be murdering someone’s grandmother.
None of this should be my job. I shouldn’t be the one writing this column. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Agriculture, and the companies that make billions selling us breakfast must ensure that none of these foods are a death sentence. No, the gap between what the law requires and what conscience requires continues to grow.
So, until the regulators do their job and the board decides that a sick child is more expensive than a clean plant, that’s what will eventually happen. Because I’ll keep showing you the bills. It is not advice from fear. This is advice from arithmetic. The foods on this list don’t have to harm you. But it often does. And after 30 years of standing next to hospital beds and graves, I’d rather skip the melons.
