The hottest Food Safety Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Food & Drink Topics

Goodbye flu season, hello Spring bugs, like norovirus, polio travel headlines, and breakthrough measles cases.

Your Local Epidemiologist • 1147 implied HN points • 24 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu season is winding down, but spring brings other bugs like common colds, RSV, and norovirus, so expect more sniffles and stomach bugs; wash hands with soap and water (hand sanitizer may not stop norovirus) and isolate if you’re sick.
  2. Polio headlines were overstated — the CDC’s global polio notice is informational, not a travel ban, and most travelers don’t need a booster; consider one only if you’ll have prolonged close contact in a place with recent detections and check with your doctor.
  3. MMR vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe measles, but breakthrough infections can occur with high exposure and are usually milder; also watch for safety alerts and recalls, including specific lots of children’s ibuprofen and Raw Farm raw cheddar linked to E. coli.

Culture Shift

Asimov Press • 412 implied HN points • 20 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Fermented foods likely helped shape human biology over millions of years, from genetic changes that improved alcohol tolerance to a recently evolved immune receptor that senses fermented-food molecules.
  2. Regularly eating fermented foods can boost gut microbial diversity and lower inflammation, but most people in Western diets consume far fewer servings than the amounts shown to have clinical effects.
  3. Industrial food safety and processing pushed microbes out of many foods, and scientists are now building large, standardized datasets to map which fermented-food microbes and metabolites actually drive health benefits.

Outbreak Outlook - National - March 22

Force of Infection • 76 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu activity is falling quickly and should drop below the seasonal baseline next week, with all age groups reporting fewer outpatient visits and Flu B making up most late-season cases.
  2. Covid-19 is quiet and mostly declining nationwide, with low ED visits and hospitalizations, though Washington, Pennsylvania, and DC show stable activity.
  3. RSV has peaked in most regions but remains high with infant hospitalizations still elevated despite recent improvements; norovirus is very active and rising, and several foodborne outbreaks/recalls (including an E. coli–linked raw cheese), plus ongoing measles spread and a UK meningitis cluster, are current concerns.

Halting vaccine innovation, younger colorectal cancer deaths, lingering flu, and good news

Your Local Epidemiologist • 1472 implied HN points • 18 Feb 26
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. The FDA initially refused to file Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine application, highlighting how shifting regulatory decisions could slow or deter long-term vaccine innovation and investment.
  2. Colorectal cancer rates are rising in younger adults, so screening now starts at 45 and people should watch symptoms at any age while focusing on healthier diets, more fiber, and regular activity to lower risk.
  3. Winter respiratory illnesses are lingering (flu B, RSV, colds) and measles cases have surged past 1,000, plus a small outbreak of drug-resistant Salmonella linked to moringa capsules—stay current on vaccines, heed outbreak warnings, and check supplement lot codes if you own the product.

In Defense of Processed Foods

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 500 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Processed foods, including ultra-processed ones, are not necessarily as harmful as many people claim.
  2. Industrial food processing has greatly expanded food access and safety and has reshaped public health for the better.
  3. Totally purging processed foods or chasing a strict "eat clean" ideal won’t magically solve diet problems and can leave people worse off; some processed items (like canned pumpkin) are simply practical and useful.
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Outbreak Outlook - National - March 15

Force of Infection • 62 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. RSV season came on much later than usual and now appears to be reaching or passing its peak, with test positivity easing and hospitalizations — especially in babies — starting to fall.
  2. Flu activity is declining and more areas have moved out of high activity, but overall visits remain above baseline and this season has been unusually severe for children.
  3. Norovirus has hit a new seasonal peak with very high test positivity and spreads easily, so careful handwashing and staying home for a few days after symptoms end are important to prevent onward transmission.

228 | When food fraud turns deadly: milk adulteration kills 6 people |

The Rotten Apple • 157 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Mass balance exercises are a practical, defensible way to track ingredient flows in food facilities. Using clear steps and downloadable templates makes them easier to perform on the factory floor and in audits.
  2. A fatal milk contamination in India involved industrial ethylene glycol entering milk from a leak in an unlicensed chilling system, causing multiple deaths and critical illnesses. Operating without proper licences or using non-food-grade chemicals creates extreme consumer safety risks and legal consequences.
  3. A Salmonella outbreak linked to moringa powder involved a strain resistant to all antibiotics used to treat Salmonella, which is a major public-health and treatment concern. Food fraud and contamination incidents keep taking diverse forms, so ongoing vigilance, testing, and enforcement are essential.

230 | Hidden Traps in Food Testing: Lessons from a Lawsuit |

The Rotten Apple • 31 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Lab test results can be misleading because different methods measure different things; some fat substitutes show up as “crude fat” in standard tests even though they add almost no nutritive calories.
  2. Nutrition labels can be technically defensible yet still confuse shoppers when non‑nutritive ingredients are counted as fat, creating a gap between regulation and consumer expectations that fuels disputes.
  3. Many food businesses have food‑defence blind spots — poor access control, weak monitoring, siloed responsibilities and infrequent reassessment leave products vulnerable, while authorities are starting to use AI tools like TraceMap to better detect fraud and outbreaks.

Grain of Terror

Vittles • 582 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. A bacterium called Bacillus cereus can survive cooking as hardy spores and produce toxins if starchy foods are left at room temperature, so improperly stored rice (and pasta) can make you sick.
  2. Western fear of reheating rice is much stronger than in many rice-eating cultures; those cultures often eat leftovers, use spices and traditional methods that may reduce bacterial growth, and the term "fried rice syndrome" is misleading and tied to historical bias.
  3. The practical rule is simple: cool cooked rice quickly, store it in the fridge or freezer, and reheat it until piping hot to minimise risk — spices might help a bit but don’t replace safe storage and reheating.

229 | Hell in a hand basket |

The Rotten Apple • 63 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Major Middle East shipping lanes are being closed or avoided, forcing ships to reroute around Africa and lengthening transit times; that raises freight and insurance costs and threatens perishable cargoes.
  2. Disruptions to Gulf oil and gas are pushing up fuel and fertiliser prices and cutting fertilizer availability, which will raise farming and processing costs and could reduce food production worldwide.
  3. Buyers are diversifying suppliers to cope, but higher prices, diverted cargoes and rushed sourcing increase the risk of food fraud and safety problems like mislabeling, counterfeit goods, expired products and mycotoxin contamination.

Oklahoma Mom Demands We Stop Dumping Sewage On America's Farmland

The DisInformation Chronicle • 640 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Food Safety
  1. A federal rule allows treated sewage sludge labeled as “biosolids” to be spread on farmland, which can introduce pathogens and chemical pollutants into the air, soil, water, and food supply.
  2. People living near land-applied sewage report serious acute and chronic health problems—like nausea, respiratory issues, infections, and neurological symptoms—while officials often downplay or dismiss their complaints.
  3. Community members organized, did independent research, formed a nonprofit, and are pushing for federal action to stop land-disposal of sewage and push for safer waste solutions.

227 | Food Fraud ↔ Food Safety: Lessons from the Peanut Supply Chain |

The Rotten Apple • 84 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Unsafe crops (like aflatoxin‑contaminated peanuts) can push sellers to commit fraud, shipping goods through illicit routes so contaminated food reaches consumers. This kind of fraud raises both economic and health risks because it often involves forged certificates and bypassed testing.
  2. Sudden trade spikes in transit countries, unexplained price drops, and porous borders or corrupt officials are clear red flags and enablers of food fraud. Businesses should watch trade data and supply chains for these warning signs.
  3. Glyphosate is used widely and remains controversial: legal rulings, scientific debate, and political pressures show its safety is uncertain while residues can enter food when sprayed on crops before harvest. That uncertainty makes it a major food‑safety and policy issue for the food system.

Rating Trump's FDA's "Top 10" Year-1 Reforms

Cremieux Recueil • 229 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. The FDA published a top-10 list of first-year reforms covering things like a food supply reset, eliminating unnecessary animal testing, public decision letters, priority vouchers, HRT, tighter pharma ad rules, agency-wide AI, easier biosimilars, expanded cell and gene therapies, and more domestic manufacturing.
  2. The piece focuses on what the FDA actually accomplished with these initiatives and whether those changes matter in practice.
  3. Each of the ten items is rated individually, and the FDA receives an overall pass-or-fail grade for its first year based on those ratings.

Eight Years After I First Exposed Fraudulent Monsanto Paper, Corrupt Journal Retracts It

The DisInformation Chronicle • 580 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has a history of publishing studies that favor corporate interests rather than genuine science. This can mislead public health policies.
  2. High-profile reports, like those from the National Academies, often include studies from this journal, potentially influencing perceptions about the safety of products like genetically modified organisms.
  3. There's a call for more accountability in scientific publishing, particularly to shut down journals that consistently promote corrupt research funded by industries instead of unbiased science.

How to Perform a Mass Balance: Step‑by‑Step Guide + Downloadable Worksheets

The Rotten Apple • 42 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. A mass balance reconciles incoming materials with finished product, waste, and stored material using the simple equation Mass In = Mass Out + Mass Stored.
  2. You run a mass balance to spot and document deviations from expected yield so problems can be investigated and the results defended in an audit.
  3. The guide gives step‑by‑step instructions and downloadable worksheets to record inputs, outputs, rework, and yield so you can do a clear, factory‑floor mass balance.

Flu still hanging on

Force of Infection • 61 implied HN points • 22 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Influenza activity remains stubbornly high across much of the country, driven by the South and Midwest. Young children have the highest outpatient ILI rates, and Flu B is rising as Flu A wanes.
  2. Norovirus test positivity has reached season highs, especially in the Midwest and Northeast, while RSV activity is holding steady. COVID-19 activity and hospitalizations are relatively low and declining.
  3. Numerous food recalls affect many products and stores, so check your pantry, and public health concerns include a large measles resurgence tied to low vaccination and an avian flu outbreak in Pennsylvania poultry.

Food Safety News and Resources | March

The Rotten Apple • 21 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Several unusual and large recalls occurred: frozen grated coconut was recalled for confirmed Hepatitis A contamination, and U.S. producers expanded a recall to about 37 million pounds of frozen meals after glass was found in carrots.
  2. International risk guidance changed: the FAO/WHO panel recommends lowering the reference dose for gluten from 5 mg to 4 mg for risk assessments, while 'gluten-free' labeling remains defined as 20 mg/kg or less.
  3. Food safety threats and capacity concerns are rising: dietary PFAS—especially from freshwater fish, shellfish, eggs and milk—often exceed safety thresholds, and U.S. food agencies have lost many staff, which could weaken oversight and response.

Flu goes on and on

Force of Infection • 80 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu activity remains high and isn’t declining yet; young children and people aged 5–24 are seeing the most clinic visits, and hospitalizations are elevated though slowly improving.
  2. RSV and norovirus activity are elevated — RSV hospitalizations are very high among infants and toddlers, and norovirus is circulating widely and spreads quickly in close quarters.
  3. Multiple food recalls and outbreaks are ongoing, including a Salmonella outbreak tied to moringa capsules that involves an extensively drug‑resistant strain; throw out affected products and clean anything that touched them.

226 | Herb fraud shock | Data exchange in traceability |

The Rotten Apple • 73 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Herbal products showed alarmingly high rates of mislabelling and adulteration, with some popular botanicals often replaced or diluted and many samples containing undeclared species.
  2. The choice of test matters: ITS2 metabarcoding found far more hidden ingredients and fungal contamination (including potential mycotoxin producers) than conventional DNA barcoding, revealing bigger safety risks.
  3. Traceability and supply-chain controls must be tightened — FSMA requires passing specific Key Data Elements at each handoff, industry is standardising on GS1/EDI methods, and small supplier maintenance failures (like frayed cables shedding copper) can cause massive, cross-border recalls so incoming packaging must be inspected and suppliers managed closely.

It’s Not Just Red Dye No. 3. It’s All Our Stuff.

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 3909 implied HN points • 21 Jan 25
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. The FDA recently banned Red Dye No. 3 due to concerns about its link to thyroid cancer in animals. It's a small victory, but there are many other potentially harmful additives still being used.
  2. Red Dye No. 3 will likely be replaced by Red Dye No. 40, which also has warnings about its effects on children in Europe. This shows that simply switching one dye for another isn't a true solution.
  3. There is a growing concern that synthetic dyes are just a small part of a larger problem with harmful chemicals in our food and products. It's important for consumers to demand safer options.

Outbreak Outlook - National - February 1

Force of Infection • 94 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu has started to rebound after weeks of decline, driven mainly by increases in school-age children and a rise in influenza B, though overall activity and hospitalizations remain well below the recent peak and influenza A still makes up most cases.
  2. COVID-19 indicators are generally declining — wastewater and ED visits are down and hospitalizations are low — but the Midwest is seeing very high wastewater levels and regional differences persist.
  3. RSV is at quite elevated levels and growing in parts of the country while norovirus trends are mixed regionally, and public health attention is also on multiple food recalls and a Nipah outbreak in India; a partial U.S. government shutdown could disrupt CDC surveillance reporting.

Outbreak Outlook - National - February 8

Force of Infection • 71 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Influenza is widespread across most states and remains especially high in young children, though emergency visits and hospitalizations have been falling recently.
  2. COVID-19 activity is roughly steady overall, with wastewater signals and regional trends rising in the Midwest and Northeast while hospitalizations continue to decline.
  3. RSV and several other respiratory viruses are elevated and climbing. Norovirus activity is high nationwide and a measles outbreak in Jalisco raises travel-related risks for the upcoming World Cup.

223 | What 795 Food Fraud Cases Tell Us About Risk | Pesticide MRLs | Cereulide Root Cause

The Rotten Apple • 94 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. A new analysis of 795 food fraud cases shows many fraud incidents also create real food safety risks, so food fraud should be treated as a food safety issue, not just an authenticity problem.
  2. Although 98% of food samples meet pesticide MRLs, the remaining 2% clusters around specific commodities, origins and substances and causes most border rejections and reputational damage; companies must move MRL compliance upstream with supplier guarantees, targeted testing and tighter procurement controls.
  3. The infant formula cereulide problem may be linked to a recent change in ARA-enriched oil production using microalgae and a Bacillus licheniformis protease, highlighting that process changes can introduce unexpected toxin risks and need fast, thorough investigation.

Heat risk paradoxes, disease trends, and food alerts

Your Local Epidemiologist • 1430 implied HN points • 23 Jun 25
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. Extreme heat can be really harmful, especially when it's humid. It makes it hard for our bodies to cool down, so it's important to pay attention to humidity and dew point, not just temperature.
  2. It's a tough season for ticks, with a rise in tick-related illnesses. If you're in areas where ticks are common, be cautious and check for bites after being outdoors.
  3. There are some food safety alerts to watch out for. Certain meal products and cough syrup have been recalled because of health risks, so it's smart to check your fridge and pantry.

225 | Top 5 NCs | 6 Parmesan Facts |

The Rotten Apple • 52 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Parmigiano Reggiano is a legally protected cheese made only in a specific Italian zone under strict rules, and its high value makes it a major target for counterfeiting and theft.
  2. Food-safety audits show hygiene, cleanability and maintenance problems (like poorly designed equipment, doors, walls and chemical controls) are the most common non-conformances, so fixing hygienic design and pest-proofing cuts a lot of risk.
  3. Food fraud is an ongoing threat with serious incidents (fake milk powder, counterfeit meat) and the response includes intelligence platforms, expert talks and events to share detection methods and strengthen authenticity controls.

Flu rebound watch

Force of Infection • 83 implied HN points • 24 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu activity is falling nationwide, but school-age children are showing a small rebound that could either be a brief bump or the start of a larger spike, so this needs close watch over the next week or two.
  2. COVID-19 is improving overall with lower ED visits and wastewater signals, but the Midwest remains relatively higher and a similar small rebound among school-age kids is being monitored.
  3. Measles outbreaks are growing rapidly across states and could cause the US to lose its elimination status, underscoring serious gaps in vaccination and public health risk.

Help make local meat affordable again!

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 1697 implied HN points • 12 Sep 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Food Safety
  1. Support for the PRIME Act can lead to more affordable and accessible local meat options by allowing farmers to use local butchers without costly USDA intermediaries.
  2. Passage of the PRIME Act would increase access to local slaughterhouses, improve food safety, boost food security, and contribute to the local economy.
  3. Taking action by calling or emailing legislators to support the PRIME Act, meeting with representatives, and spreading awareness can make a significant impact on the future of local meat production.

224 | Seek and Destroy: Real-world lessons in Listeria eradication |

The Rotten Apple • 52 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Listeria can hide deep inside equipment parts like conveyor belt fibres and hollow rollers where surface swabs and routine cleaning miss them.
  2. Eradicating persistent Listeria often requires a multifaceted 'seek and destroy' approach — thorough disassembly, chemical and heat treatments, intensive sampling — and sometimes replacing the contaminated equipment to stop product contamination.
  3. Reports that food fraud is “surging” may overstate the trend because higher counts can reflect increased awareness and enforcement; nonetheless food fraud remains widespread with many ongoing incidents, so vigilance and tools like webinars and resources are still needed.

Widespread flu activity overshadows holiday season

Force of Infection • 124 implied HN points • 28 Dec 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu is surging across many states with emergency visits, test positivity, and hospitalizations doubling or tripling in places and in some areas already exceeding last year’s peaks.
  2. Other respiratory viruses — RSV, rhinoviruses/enteroviruses, adenovirus and metapneumovirus — are also on the rise, while COVID-19 is increasing in some states but remains generally low.
  3. Multiple food recalls and non-respiratory outbreaks (growing measles clusters, a salmonella outbreak tied to raw oysters, and rising norovirus wastewater signals) add extra public health risks, so check recalled items and follow basic hygiene steps.

The FDA Policy that Kills Animals

Who is Robert Malone • 20 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. New FDA rules now require veterinarians' prescriptions for many livestock antibiotics, making basic treatments more expensive and harder to obtain.
  2. There is a widespread shortage of large-animal and avian veterinarians in rural areas, so the prescription requirement often leaves farmers unable to get timely care for sick animals.
  3. Farmers are being forced into greater self-reliance and community support—using human medicines, alternative remedies, or stockpiling—because regulations have outpaced rural veterinary infrastructure and increase preventable animal suffering.

Outbreak Outlook - National - Jan 18

Force of Infection • 66 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu activity is falling across most of the country but remains elevated, especially in the Northeast and among young children. It might rebound, but usually there’s a single peak and activity typically winds down by March.
  2. COVID-19 indicators are generally declining and ED visits have dropped, yet wastewater levels remain high in parts of the country, with the Midwest currently the hardest hit. Continued monitoring is needed as regional trends differ.
  3. Several food recalls are underway, including a large multistate Salmonella-linked supplement recall, so check and discard any affected products you may have. Wastewater surveillance is also showing value as an early warning tool for outbreaks like measles.

Outbreak Outlook - National - Jan 4

Force of Infection • 86 implied HN points • 04 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Flu activity is very high across the country, with emergency visits and hospitalizations elevated in many states and several areas near or past their seasonal peak.
  2. COVID-19 and RSV are both rising; COVID remains generally low but has notable increases in some states, while RSV is at moderate levels and climbing with some states reaching seasonal baselines.
  3. Norovirus activity is increasing and highly contagious, so hand washing and surface cleaning are important. Multiple food recalls and a large measles resurgence also highlight the need for food safety and vaccination.

Outbreak Outlook - National - Jan 11

Force of Infection • 70 implied HN points • 11 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Influenza activity is very high nationwide but shows signs of declining in most regions; children improved most, yet cases, hospitalizations, and deaths remain substantial and precautions are still advisable.
  2. COVID-19 is trending upward — wastewater levels and hospitalizations are increasing, with the Midwest hardest hit, the Northeast and South rising, and the West still low.
  3. RSV and several other respiratory viruses are rising (with RSV test positivity and hospitalizations up), norovirus wastewater signals are high in many regions, and several food recalls mean people should check and discard affected products.

222 | How does cereulide get into infant formula? Which GFSI Scheme is Best? |

The Rotten Apple • 52 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Cereulide in the infant formula recall likely came from a contaminated ingredient, possibly ARA oil made by fungal fermentation, where the toxin from a starchy fermentation substrate could partition into the oil.
  2. Cereulide is a heat‑stable, highly potent emetic toxin produced by Bacillus cereus in starchy materials; once formed it survives cooking and reheating, so control relies on preventing bacterial growth (rapid cooling, cold storage ≤5 °C, strict hot‑holding or discard rules).
  3. Pick a GFSI certification that fits your target markets, company maturity, local auditor availability and budget because there’s no one‑size‑fits‑all; importantly, GFSI clarified auditors with equivalent industry experience (not just degrees) remain eligible, easing the auditor shortage.

The Food Safety Impact of Food Fraud: What 795 Food Fraud Cases Tell Us About Real Risk

The Rotten Apple • 42 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. Food fraud creates food safety risks. New research has measured how often fraud incidents also pose safety hazards by analyzing 795 cases.
  2. Not all fraud is equally dangerous: the study categorizes which types of fraud, which hazards, and which foods are most likely to cause safety problems.
  3. The findings give practical guidance for industry to prioritize monitoring and prevention so resources target the fraud types and food products that pose the biggest safety risk.

Food Safety News and Resources | February

The Rotten Apple • 31 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🍲 Food & Drink Food Safety
  1. A strain of Clostridium botulinum that sickened infants was found in organic whole milk powder used in ByHeart formula, traced to a third‑party supplier and sparking blame between suppliers.
  2. Shrimp recalls for cesium‑137 contamination from Indonesian products are continuing, and some recalled shipments were not added to the FDA advisory page.
  3. WHO has updated INFOSAN manuals to strengthen national outbreak surveillance and response, and free guidance and webinars are available on allergen validation, metal detection, and international outbreak investigations.

Thanksgiving Outlook

Force of Infection • 135 implied HN points • 23 Nov 25
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. Flu activity is starting to increase in many areas, especially among young children. It's important to stay aware of this as you celebrate Thanksgiving.
  2. COVID-19 cases are currently low, but we might see an increase soon in some states. It's something we should keep an eye on.
  3. Norovirus is on the rise, especially with Thanksgiving coming up. Make sure to wash your hands and be cautious when preparing food for others to prevent spreading it.

Well Being: Broccoli, A True Superfood

Who is Robert Malone • 22 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Food Safety
  1. Broccoli — especially young broccoli sprouts — is a top source of glucoraphanin that converts into sulforaphane, a signaling compound that turns on the body’s detox, antioxidant, and cell‑regulation systems and may lower cancer risk over time.
  2. That conversion needs the enzyme myrosinase, which cooking often destroys, so eating raw sprouts, pairing cooked broccoli with mustard (or using supplements that include myrosinase) improves how much sulforaphane your body actually gets.
  3. Growing organic broccoli sprouts at home is easy and gives you a very concentrated, low‑residue source of these protective compounds that are best eaten raw or added after cooking to preserve their benefits.

Outbreak Outlook - National - Dec 22

Force of Infection • 73 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Food Safety
  1. Influenza is surging nationwide: outpatient ILI and test positivity have climbed sharply, many states now show high activity, and hospitalizations and pediatric deaths are rising. If you haven't had a flu shot yet, it's still the best way to reduce severe illness.
  2. COVID-19 and RSV remain at relatively low levels overall but are inching upward, with small increases seen in wastewater, ED visits, and hospitalizations in some regions. RSV is below average for the season but slowly rising and continues to hit young children hardest.
  3. There are multiple food recalls and a recalled infant formula tied to a botulism outbreak was still found for sale in many stores, contributing to numerous infant hospitalizations. Officials are also reportedly considering changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that could alter routine recommendations.