Food Safety Now: Your Essential Guide to Protecting Yourself & Family in 2025

Food safety and food-borne illness are not my favorite topics (a little boring). Well, boring no more! Recent changes in the US administration and public health infrastructure make food safety right now something all of us need to be aware of. In 2024, hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated food doubled nationwide, with food recalls from Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli surging 41% according to CDC outbreak data(1).

The sobering reality? Traditional food safety oversight systems were struggling to keep pace with evolving contamination risks before the current administration dismantled consumer protections. American families are increasingly vulnerable now. Recent Listeria outbreaks in ready-to-eat foods across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Washington, coupled with widespread Salmonella contamination in sprouted beans and fresh produce, signal a critical shift in how we must approach food safety.

This evidence-based guide combines current outbreak surveillance data with proven protective strategies that don’t rely solely on regulatory oversight. You’ll discover which foods pose the highest risks right now and learn the multi-layered safety protocols that can protect your family when institutional safeguards fall short.

The Current Food Safety Landscape

While federal agencies have implemented several positive changes—including stricter lead standards for baby foods (now capped at 10 parts per billion for fruits, vegetables, and yogurts) and positive changes to some inspection systems(2)—these improvements haven’t kept pace with escalating contamination events and the removal of oversight of toxic chemicals from food and the environment.

The spring and summer of 2025 brought a cascade of serious outbreaks. Listeria monocytogenes contaminated ready-to-eat foods distributed across four western states, while Salmonella infections spiked from sprouted beans and cucumbers reaching grocery shelves nationwide. June alone saw multiple food recalls due to bacterial contamination, creating a perfect storm of consumer confusion and supply chain disruption.

What’s particularly concerning is the concentration of risk. While total outbreak numbers may seem manageable, the severity and scope of individual incidents have intensified dramatically. A single contaminated processing facility can now affect products distributed across dozens of states within hours, amplifying the impact of each safety failure.

This reality reflects deeper systemic challenges: aging food processing infrastructure, increasingly complex global supply chains, and regulatory agencies stretched thin across expanding oversight responsibilities. Political pressures and budget constraints have further limited the frequency and depth of facility inspections, creating gaps that dangerous pathogens readily exploit.

The message is clear: while some improvements continue, you can’t rely solely on US government or institutional oversight to protect your family from foodborne illness. Sorry.

High-Risk Foods and Vulnerable Populations

Based on recent outbreak data, certain foods now pose dramatically elevated risks.

Ready-to-eat products—including deli meats, pre-made salads, and packaged sandwiches—have emerged as primary contamination vectors, largely because they bypass the kill-step of cooking that eliminates most pathogens.
Fresh produce presents another critical risk category. Cucumbers, sprouted beans, and leafy greens have been implicated in multiple recent outbreaks, often contaminated at the growing or processing stage through irrigation water, soil amendments, or cross-contamination during packaging. Unlike processed foods, fresh produce rarely undergoes treatments that eliminate harmful bacteria.
Baby foods deserve special attention given the new lead contamination standards. While 10 parts per billion represents progress, parents should prioritize products from manufacturers with robust internal testing programs and consider preparing more baby food at home from whole ingredients.

Vulnerable populations face amplified risks from these contaminated foods.

Pregnant women risk devastating consequences from Listeria exposure, which can cause miscarriage or severe newborn infections.
Adults over 65 and individuals with compromised immune systems—including those with diabetes, cancer, or autoimmune conditions—are more likely to develop severe complications from any foodborne pathogen.
Children under five face particular danger from E. coli infections, which can cause life-threatening kidney failure.

For these high-risk groups, conservative food choices aren’t just recommended—they’re essential for preventing serious illness.

Essential Food Safety Practices

Protecting your family requires implementing multiple defensive layers, starting with these four fundamental principles:

Clean with Purpose

Wash your hands for a full 20 seconds before and after handling any food—this simple step eliminates the majority of harmful bacteria that cause cross-contamination. You can create a bleach sanitizing solution using one tablespoon of unscented bleach per gallon of water for cleaning all food contact surfaces. Replace kitchen sponges weekly and dedicate separate cutting boards exclusively for raw meats versus fresh produce.

Even fruits and vegetables you plan to peel require thorough washing, as knife blades can carry surface contaminants into the flesh. Rinse all produce under running water, scrubbing firm items like cucumbers and melons with a clean brush.

I do a wipe down first thing in the morning (I’m the morning person of our household), and my beloved husband Craig usually does a night-time clean-up.

Separate Strategically

Raw meats must remain isolated from ready-to-eat foods throughout the entire food handling process (prep, cook, store). Store raw meats on the lowest refrigerator shelf to prevent drips, and use separate utensils for raw and cooked items. Never place cooked food back on surfaces or plates that previously held raw meat without thorough cleaning and sanitization.

Cook to Kill Baddies

Invest in a reliable instant-read thermometer and use it consistently. Poultry must reach 165°F, ground meats 160°F, and whole cuts of beef and pork 145°F. For high-risk individuals, reheat all deli meats and hot dogs until steaming hot before consumption—this simple step eliminates Listeria contamination.

Chill out Consistently

Maintain your refrigerator at 40°F or below and don’t leave perishable foods in the danger zone (40-140°F) for more than two hours—or just one hour when ambient temperature exceeds 90°F. Implement a “first in, first out” rotation system to ensure older products get used before newer ones.

How long does food last in the fridge? I’m a fan of the 3-day rule, especially for protein-containing foods. The surve-safe training for food handling says 7 days. For non-protein containing foods like condiments, jellies, and such, a couple of months. For milk, cheese, and other perishables, use the use-by dates. If in doubt, throw it out.

Before shopping, I check recalls for current alerts (we all have nerdy friends who keep track – well, now you do too!). During the ongoing date labeling standardization period, pay extra attention to expiration dates and when in doubt, choose fresher alternatives. Consider diversifying your shopping across multiple stores and suppliers (and think local – farmer’s markets and local stands) to reduce concentrated exposure from any single contaminated source.

Beyond Government Oversight – Building Your Own Safety Net

Finding Information – in the US

This administration has dismantled much of our public health infrastructure, which has and will negatively impact the safety of the US food supply. When institutional oversight proves insufficient, independent systems start to pop up – and that’s what’s happening now. Academic institutions like university extension programs provide research-based food safety guidance without commercial bias, and some universities, like Brown, are stepping in to track outbreaks of things like COVID and other potential pandemics.

Finding Information – International Support

International food safety standards often exceed U.S. requirements and offer additional perspective on best practices. The World Health Organization publishes comprehensive food safety guidelines, and European Food Safety Authority standards frequently prove more stringent than domestic regulations. Products bearing certifications from Global Food Safety Initiative-recognized programs undergo additional third-party verification beyond minimum regulatory requirements.

Think Local

Developing relationships with local food producers creates transparency unavailable in industrial supply chains. Farmers’ markets (look here for farmers’ markets in MA) allow direct conversations about growing and handling practices, while Community Supported Agriculture programs often welcome farm visits. Many small-scale producers maintain testing protocols that exceed those of larger operations.

Even More Local – Your Home

Your home safety strategies can include erring on the side of safe storage times and cooking temperatures. When regulatory guidance seems uncertain, use shorter storage windows and higher cooking temperatures than officially recommended. You might invest in food safety tools like pH test strips for home preservation projects or water testing kits if you rely on well water for food preparation.

Building community information networks amplifies individual efforts. Neighbors sharing experiences about food quality from different retailers can create an early warning system for local problems. Local health departments often investigate outbreaks more thoroughly than federal agencies and may identify risks before they gain national attention.

The win-win

Finally, reducing your dependence on processed foods decreases your exposure to industrial contamination. Might this be a silver lining? A more whole-foods plant-based diet not only provides you the nutrients you need for your big full life, but also is demonstrably safer from the most virulent food-borne outbreaks.

If you have interest, it is an excellent time to learn preservation techniques like fermentation, dehydration, or proper canning for more control over food safety while getting a bit more self-reliant. Even urban dwellers can grow herbs, sprouts, or microgreens, ensuring at least some food sources remain completely under personal control.

No matter where or how you live, you might learn a little more from our homesteading brothers and sisters. yep, maybe the preppers have a point! I recently wrote a post about homesteading to get you thinking about why and how to develop your healthy bubble of home.

Food Safety Now

Food safety is a collaboration. It takes all of us, communicating within a system, to minimize outbreaks. Right now, that system is significantly compromised, and a new system isn’t yet available. From the looks of things, it might be a while. So, it’s an excellent time to eat a little better, get a little stronger physically and mentally, think a little more about food safety, and keep an eye on those you love.

You got this.

Here are a couple of articles that might give you more ideas and inspiration on food-based well being.

Sources

(1) US Public Interest Research Group. NEW REPORT: Hospitalizations, deaths from contaminated food doubled in 2024. Accessed 9/16/25 Online.

(2) Consumer Reports. FDA Proposes New Limits for Lead in Baby Foods. Accessed 9/16/25 Online.

What is Medical Nutrition Therapy? Real Food As Medicine

We are in the era of the nutritionist. There is so much confusion around food and nutrition, and so much wacky advice flying around. This while Americans are just not able to make it to the basics of healthful eating. Nutrition-related chronic diseases continue to be the primary health issues, and each of us has our own variation of health and disease.
Because we are in a time when so much that sounds like nutrition is actually marketing and bluster, and so many who call themselves experts are so far from it, confusion reigns. Enter RDNs (Registered Dietitian Nutritionists) and MNT (Medical Nutrition Therapy). If you know me, you know that I am a mind-body therapist – I use things like meditation and gentle yoga practice as tools to help us cultivate the best of ourselves, and soothe us as we gather our courage and strength to sing our song, to sing our note.

What is MNT?

There is a large body of evidence that tells us how to manage a range of health and medical conditions with food and nutrition. MNT, or medical nutrition therapy, uses that evidence and through a qualified therapist, translates that evidence into healing. While there is a range of nutritionists operating today, with various levels of education and experience, and I honestly believe there is room for everyone, I am partial to those who have a 4-year science degree and access to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Knowledge Center for working with people with a medical condition. I am biased for sure, being one who sweated through all that nutritional biochemistry and worked in an ICU (intensive care unit of a hospital) writing TPN (total parenteral nutrition) orders to keep people alive until they could eat. Then I taught at Kripalu for nearly a decade, watching how mind-body used skillfully helped people with the will and knowledge transform. The combination of clinical skills and experiential practice are, in my opinion, the sweet spot when it comes to healing nutrition-related issues.

What conditions are we talking about?

There are guidelines for a range of medical conditions. Those I am well-versed in include:

Weight gain – from adolescents to adults, and family-based, for any reason
Eating Disorders, emotional eating and disordered eating
Unexpected weight loss due to cancer, HIV/AIDS or other chronic condition
Pre-diabetes and diabetes
Cancer – prevention, management and prevention of recurrence
Heart Disease – prevention, management
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Digestive approaches to auto-immune conditions (Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and others)
Digestive distress due to:
- Irritable Bowel
- Crohn’s Disease
- Colitis
- Constipation
- Reflux/Heartburn
- Food Intolerance (lactose-intolerance, gluten, and others), and Allergies

I use an individualized approach. That includes an initial assessment of nutrition-related symptoms and medical history, review of nutrition-related labs and reports, and development of a custom way of eating that you enjoy and that adheres to evidence-based practice.
We then co-create a plan to get there – your way. There is no such thing as failure, no such thing as relapse in this world – but there is learning, through loving self-compassion, how to navigate your life in its fullness. It’s a dance of mindful skillful effort, and surrender (that’s yoga!).

Within that list, do you specialize?

While I can help address any of these conditions, and they all have relating threads, I particularly like to work with weight, women in midlife, and digestive issues. I have also had a personal experience with cancer, so helping people with that interests me.

How much does it cost?

Depends. I am a licensed nutritionist in the state of Massachusetts. If you have a medical condition and live in the great state of Massachusetts, or another state that does not have state licensure, it is worth it to give your insurance company a call to see if our work together can be reimbursed. For this, you will likely need a referral from your primary care doctor.
If you are not insured, in another state with licensure or your insurance doesn’t cover, then you are what clinicians call private pay. It’s likely that our work together could be included in your health spending account if you have one.
Bottom line, if you value your energy level and lifestyle, it’s worth it to have a skilled coach to help you move forward.
My rates are $150/hr, and most people I work with do an initial assessment, then a half-hour twice monthly for 2 months, then monthly for 4 months.

Tell me about telehealth

I’ve partnered with a practice-management group called Healthie. They provide an interface for us to work through, including journaling, billing and video conferencing. So, we can meet face to face in the comfort of your own home! I think telehealth is part of the future of medicine, and I am excited to be part of it.
Ready to make the change? Let’s do it – Make an appointment now .
Questions? I’m all ears.
Be well,
Annie

Getting Started with Healthy Eating

Confused about what’s healthy and what’s not? You are not alone!
It’s a challenge to follow a healthy lifestyle in our anything-but-healthy culture. But for most of us, it’s worth the effort to be the most vibrant, healthy version of ourselves that we can.
No matter who you are – how old, how physically or financially limited – you can improve your life by making healthier food choices, moving more, and connecting with others. As a nutritionist for nearly 30 years, I’ve seen people transform their lives through modest lifestyle changes practiced over time.
Here are a few ideas for laying the groundwork for healthy eating.

Don’t believe the hype. The idea of a pill, potion or diet that will magically excuse you from the reality of how our human bodies work can feel irresistible. But like low-payment mortgages and other investment schemes we’ve learned so much about in the past few years, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. The FDA recently warned that some diet aids can actually do serious physical damage.

The only way for the average person to stay healthy over the long haul is to eat a healthy diet that honors their needs (and for most, features plants) and to be adequately physically active. Within that guideline are limitless paths to get there. The pill or diet might help with a jump-start, but eventually, we all live within the laws of our human physiology.

Take a positive, additive approach. Weight loss or getting healthy is best experienced as an exercise in getting to know yourself and how your body works. One key is to find some joy – some fun, in learning how to care for yourself well. In my decades of counseling people on lifestyle, I find it’s best to start by adding good things – like physical activity, and servings of fruits and vegetables. That way, the foods and activities that don’t serve you (like French fries, donuts and Law & Order marathons) tend to fall by the wayside with less sacrificial pain. There is a way to enjoy what you eat and follow a healthy diet.

Here’s an exercise: on a piece of paper, make a list of things that fuel your life force. List things large (vacation on the beach!) and small (get myself flowers!), expensive and free (call an old friend!) – everything from getting outside, taking a great bath, being active, reading – whatever fuels your passion, or is fun, or feels good. Here’s a tip: people who take excellent care of themselves give themselves things that fuel their life force. And taking excellent care of yourself makes a healthy lifestyle easier and more fun to stick with.

Know where your journey begins. There is a slew of good (and free) web-based assessment tools to help you figure out what and how much you’re eating right now. That’s really the first step in finding out where you want to go. Step on the scale, find your BMI and see where you are on the sliding scale from underweight to obese. For most of these assessment numbers, see them then set them aside, and focus on the habits. It’s easy to get fixated on “I knew I struggled with weight but now I see I’m obese – I’m no good and it’s hopeless.” When those kinds of thoughts pop up, see if you can turn it around to a positive, like “I knew things were getting out of hand, and now I know the situation and can do something about it – I can do this.” So long as you are focused on positive change and positive habits your life is likely to get better. Everyone has difficulty with something in their life. It’s how you work it in your mind that makes the difference between success and spinning your wheels.

Remember that with diet, “relapse” always happens. One of my wise teaching friends at Kripalu says “progress not perfection,” and with diet, there will always be a wedding or dinner with friends or just a day when you haven’t eaten well. Often, people feel like they’ve failed when they’re not perfect, and slide into the land of “it’s too hard” and “I can’t do this” and “it doesn’t really matter,” and they give up. It can be months before they try it again. If only they knew that it’s natural not to be perfect! If you ‘fall off the wagon’, dust yourself off, have a glass of water, forgive yourself and get back to practice as soon as you can – the same day, the next morning, but soon. Think about what made healthy eating too difficult – that can be an experiment for next time. That’s how real change happens.

Here’s to your practice of fun and good health.

Learn more…

What next?
Want to stay connected and join others on this path to wholeness?
The best way to do that is to sign up for my monthly newsletter to get tips and resources to support you.
You can also check out opportunities to study with me.

Herb Pesto Recipe: Wild Plant Medicine

Pesto is a base recipe for food as medicine. The herbs you use for pesto are concentrated sources of health-enhancing nutrients. Through the seasons, you can make several batches for use on cooked vegetables, grains, really anything and everything.

Pesto is also a great recipe to begin exploring a little wild plant medicine.

When I speak of wild plants, I’m talking about plants you collect from your (unsprayed with chemicals!) lawn or the edge of a forest. I’m talking about dandelion greens, garlic mustard, mugwort and the like. Many of these wild plants are strongly flavored – I think of them as the wild game of the plant world – and just a little wild food does a human good. So, in pesto, I will mix familiar herbs like basil with a bit of the stronger wild stuff like dandelion or garlic mustard, depending upon what’s tender and not overwhelming (dandelions, for example, get more and more bitter as the season progresses).

Here is a base recipe for pesto I use and modify based on what’s available. Sometimes I use cheese, often not (I love to eat a lot of it, and cheese is not the most health-enhancing food for me, so I use just a smidgen). I can use creamy pine nuts, toasted walnuts, or sweet almonds depending on the herbs I have, the flavors I’d like to play with, and what I’m hankering for.
Here it is:

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Herbal Pesto Recipe

Pesto is a base recipe for food as medicine. The herbs you use for pesto are concentrated sources of health-enhancing nutrients.

Course Dinner, Lunch, Side Dish

Keyword Basil, Herbal Water, Recipes, Plant Medicine, Pesto

Equipment

Blender

Ingredients

1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 1/2 cups fresh leafy green herbs basil, cilantro, thyme, parsley or your favorite
1/2 cup wild savory herbs garlic basil, dandelion
2 garlic cloves peeled and center woody section removed
1/2 cup nuts or seeds pepitas, walnuts, almonds
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Pour oil into a blender, add garlic, nuts, and herbs in thirds and blend to that lovely pesto loose paste-like consistency.
Add salt.

Notes

Classic pesto contains basil and pine nuts and a half-cup of Parmesan in the above recipe. Use your imagination and what you have on hand. Variations are endless!

Remember, when it comes to wild food and botanical medicines – safety first!

Vegan Maple Pumpkin Custard Recipe

VEGAN MAPLE PUMPKIN CUSTARD RECIPE

I love this recipe for pumpkin custard! Quick, easy, tasty, healthy. Boom.

My recipe was developed for the Natural Health Expo in the fall with the intention of having a healthier holiday. I wanted to make a no-bake vegan pumpkin pie recipe, and this fits the bill. It uses the amazing product, cashew cream (a DIY product, that is). I’m excited to continue to play with it through the spring & summer.

You could sub cooked sweet potato or any yellow squash for the pumpkin if you’d rather roll that way. Too, changing the spice profile to include other sweet spices like cloves and cardamom is certainly in my future.

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Vegan Maple Pumpkin Custard

My recipe for a vegan maple pumpkin custard was developed for the Natural Health Expo in the fall with the intention of having a healthier holiday. I wanted to make a no-bake vegan pumpkin pie recipe, and this fits the bill.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword custard, pUMPKIN, Vegan