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Food Safety News publisher Bill Marler says he is filing seven petitions with the FDA and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, seeking changes to food testing, labels, outbreak investigations and public disclosure. The source describes the petitions’ requests, but does not establish that either agency has acted on them or will adopt them.
Food Safety News publisher Bill Marler says he is filing seven petitions with the FDA and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, asking the agencies to strengthen food testing and warnings, expand outbreak sampling and disclose firms implicated in investigations. The requests span infant formula, raw-milk cheese, sprouts and poultry, as well as access to animal feeding operations; the source does not report agency decisions on the petitions.
Marler’s account says the petitions were prepared with his staff and lawyers at Marler Clark, along with scientists, physicians, families affected by outbreaks and other food-safety colleagues. One request would have FDA add botulinum neurotoxin-producing clostridia to finished-product testing requirements for powdered infant formula and require testing of dairy ingredients used in the products. The source says federal rules already require finished formula testing for Cronobacter and Salmonella. It also reports that 52 infants have been hospitalized with botulism in the ByHeart and Nara Organics outbreaks since 2023, and says the organism was found in a dairy ingredient. Marler says 46 parents of 24 affected infants are co-petitioners.
Two other FDA petitions would require prescribed package warnings: one for cheese made from unpasteurized milk, and one for raw or lightly cooked sprouts, including sprouts sold in salads, sandwiches and wraps. The cheese request also calls for completing FDA’s reevaluation of the 60-day aging rule and requiring cheesemakers relying on aging to validate that it controls pathogens. The sprouts request would put on packages advice FDA has issued in other formats for children, older adults, pregnant people and people with weakened immune systems.
The poultry petition asks USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to treat Salmonella at or above 1 CFU per gram as an adulterant in raw ground chicken and turkey and raw chicken parts, or alternatively to apply the determination to three Salmonella serotypes. It also asks the agency to begin verification sampling it had announced and later postponed, according to Marler’s account. Other proposals seek limited FDA access to animal feeding operations implicated in multistate outbreaks, and a written standard for identifying firms implicated by epidemiological and traceback or laboratory evidence. The source also describes an additional petition, but its full request is not present in the supplied material.
Changes Could Reach Labels and Testing
The proposals would affect decisions made at several points in the food-safety system: what manufacturers test, what consumers see on packaging, what regulators can sample during an outbreak and what information investigators release. If adopted, warning labels could make existing agency advice visible at the point of purchase or consumption. Broader testing or sampling authority could also change how quickly regulators identify contamination sources, although the petitions alone do not establish that any change will occur.
The disclosure proposal raises a distinct public-information issue. Marler argues that consumers should be told the identities of firms implicated by evidence during an investigation. That could help people assess possible exposure, but the source does not provide the petition’s full proposed standard or the agencies’ view on how disclosure would be weighed against confidentiality and investigative concerns.
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Earlier Rules and Outbreak Decisions
The petitions build on prior federal actions cited in Marler’s report. FDA’s powdered-formula rules list Cronobacter and Salmonella for finished-product testing. A separate 60-day aging rule for raw-milk cheese dates to the 1940s; Marler says FDA announced a reevaluation in 2013 that remains unfinished. His petition seeks both a warning label and validation when aging is used as a safety measure.
For poultry, the report says FSIS determined in May 2024 that Salmonella at or above 1 CFU per gram is an adulterant in breaded stuffed raw chicken products. The agency said it would consider other raw poultry in a later rulemaking, which was withdrawn in April 2025; Marler says no replacement followed. He also cites a 2018 romaine investigation in which FDA found an outbreak strain in an irrigation canal by a large cattle feedlot and collected six samples inside the operation. The account says FDA has named farms, processors or brands in comparable situations at least eight times since 2006, but lacks a written disclosure standard.
“This year I have spent a fair amount of time trying to put myself out of business.”
— Bill Marler, Food Safety News publisher
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Agency Responses Have Not Been Reported
The supplied report does not confirm whether all seven petitions have been formally filed, provide docket numbers or reproduce the complete text of every request. The source excerpt ends during its description of the petition on naming firms, so the full scope of that proposal and the seventh petition cannot be independently summarized here. It also does not include responses from FDA or FSIS.
Claims about outbreak totals, agency history and the effects or adequacy of existing rules are attributed to Marler’s account; the source material does not include agency documents or independent verification for each point. It remains unknown whether either agency will accept, reject or modify the requests, or on what timetable.
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Petition Review and Agency Decisions
The immediate next step is confirmation of the petitions’ filing and publication, followed by any agency acknowledgment or response. FDA and FSIS would need to evaluate the requests under their respective procedures; the source gives no response deadline or promised rulemaking schedule. Readers can look for petition texts, docket information and agency statements to establish the precise requests and whether formal proceedings begin.
Until agencies act, the proposals remain requests rather than new food-safety requirements. Existing testing rules, labeling practices and disclosure decisions are not changed merely by filing petitions. The source does not say whether Marler or the co-petitioners plan further legal action if the agencies decline to act.
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Key Questions
What are the seven petitions asking federal agencies to do?
They seek changes involving powdered infant formula testing, warnings for raw-milk cheese and sprouts, Salmonella rules and sampling for poultry, access to implicated animal feeding operations, and disclosure of firms connected to outbreaks. The supplied source excerpt does not contain the complete description of all seven requests.
Have FDA or FSIS adopted any of the proposals?
No adoption is reported in the source. The petitions are requests for agency action, not changes to current requirements.
What does the infant-formula petition propose?
It asks FDA to add botulinum neurotoxin-producing clostridia to finished-product testing requirements and require testing of dairy ingredients used in powdered infant formula. Marler says 46 parents of 24 infants are co-petitioners.
Would the proposed poultry rule apply to all Salmonella?
The petition seeks a 1 CFU-per-gram adulterant determination for raw ground chicken and turkey and raw chicken parts. As an alternative, it asks for action on the serotypes Infantis, Enteritidis and Typhimurium.
When will the agencies respond?
The source gives no response deadline or decision timetable. It is not yet clear when FDA or FSIS will respond, or whether they will begin rulemaking or other proceedings.
Source: rss
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