With thousands of Cyclospora illnesses reported across the United States, the ongoing outbreak is drawing attention well beyond the food safety community.
At the 2026 IAFP Annual Meeting in New Orleans, QA contributing editor Darin Detwiler caught up with food safety attorney Bill Marler to discuss what the scale of the outbreak could mean for the broader national conversation around food safety.
Marler and Detwiler discuss the challenges of tracking foodborne illness, recent pressure on federal and state food safety programs and the role surveillance and traceability play in identifying and responding to outbreaks.
The conversation also looks back at the series of high-profile outbreaks and advocacy efforts that helped lead to passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and whether the current Cyclospora outbreak could become a similar turning point.
“When you have 16,000 people sick, it’s hard to ignore,” Marler said.
Watch the full conversation above.
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