TL;DR
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Food safety lawyer Bill Marler says he is filing seven petitions with the FDA and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, seeking changes to testing, consumer warnings, outbreak investigations and public disclosures. The source material describes the petitions’ requests, but does not establish that the agencies have accepted or acted on them; the filing and agency responses remain key next steps.
Food safety lawyer Bill Marler says he is pursuing seven petitions asking the FDA and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to change how they test foods, warn consumers and investigate outbreaks. The proposals cover powdered infant formula, raw milk cheese, sprouts, poultry and outbreak-linked animal feeding operations and companies; the source account describes requests, not agency decisions.
The petitions seek action on three FDA-regulated areas involving consumer warnings and testing. One asks the agency to add botulinum neurotoxin-producing clostridia to required finished-product testing for powdered infant formula and require testing of dairy ingredients used to make it. Marler’s account cites 52 infant hospitalizations with botulism since 2023 in the ByHeart and Nara Organics outbreaks, and says the organism was found in a dairy ingredient. He says 46 parents of 24 affected infants are co-petitioners.
Two other FDA petitions would require prescribed warnings on cheese made with raw milk and packaged raw or lightly cooked sprouts, including sprouts in salads, sandwiches and wraps. The cheese proposal also asks FDA to complete its review of the 60-day aging rule and require producers relying on aging to validate that it works. The sprouts request would put advice the agency has issued in other materials onto packages.
The remaining proposals address poultry, outbreak investigations and disclosure. A petition to FSIS seeks an adulterant finding for Salmonella in raw ground chicken and turkey and chicken parts, or at least for three serotypes identified by the agency as major causes of illness. It also asks FSIS to begin sampling it previously announced. FDA petitions would seek narrowly triggered access to sample animal feeding operations linked in writing to multistate outbreaks, and a written standard for naming firms implicated by evidence. The supplied report cuts off during its description of the disclosure petition, so its complete requested terms are not available here.
Changes That Could Affect Food Buyers
The proposals focus on points where a food safety response can affect both consumer choices and outbreak prevention: testing before products reach the market, warnings at the point of purchase, and access to evidence during an investigation. If adopted, packaging warnings could make existing agency advice more visible to consumers who may face higher risks from particular foods.
Other requests would change what regulators can test or disclose. Sampling at an outbreak-linked feeding operation could help investigators assess a possible source, while publishing the identity of firms implicated by evidence could give consumers more specific information during an investigation. Those are proposed consequences, not outcomes established by the source. The petitions would require agency consideration, and the source does not say the agencies have agreed to any request.
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Earlier Rules and Agency Decisions
Marler frames the petitions as requests to complete or formalize work he says agencies have already begun or discussed. For raw milk cheese, he points to the 60-day aging rule, adopted decades ago, and says FDA announced a reevaluation in 2013. For sprouts, his account says FDA has advised at-risk groups against eating them for 28 years, including through outbreak-related materials, but has not required a package warning.
For poultry, the account cites an FSIS determination in May 2024 that Salmonella at or above 1 CFU per gram is an adulterant in breaded stuffed raw chicken products. Marler argues that the agency’s reasoning also applies to other raw poultry. He says a broader proceeding was withdrawn in April 2025, while planned verification sampling was postponed indefinitely in December 2025. These descriptions are the petition proponent’s account; the supplied material does not include agency responses.
The account also points to FDA’s response to the 2018 Yuma romaine outbreak and a 1975 rule concerning Salmonella in pet turtles to support its proposed authority to sample outbreak-linked feeding operations. It cites recent outbreak announcements that did not name firms, contrasting them with earlier cases in which FDA disclosed company identities. The underlying agency records and the full petition documents are not included in the supplied material.
““This year I have spent a fair amount of time trying to put myself out of business.””
— Bill Marler, in the Publisher’s Platform article
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Petition Status and Agency Responses
The supplied material does not confirm when all seven petitions were formally filed, whether FDA or FSIS has acknowledged them, or how either agency will respond. It also does not provide complete copies of the petitions or agency comments. The source description ends partway through the firm-disclosure proposal, leaving its full wording and scope unclear.
Several outbreak figures and procedural descriptions are presented by Marler as the basis for the requests. This account does not independently document those figures or provide statements from the affected companies, FDA or FSIS. The number of petitions is clear in the article’s framing, but the supplied text details only six proposals; the seventh petition’s subject and requested action are not specified.
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Agency Review and Filing Details
The next milestones are confirmation of the filing dates and full text of all seven petitions, followed by any FDA or FSIS acknowledgment, public comment process or response. The supplied account does not give deadlines or say whether the agencies have scheduled action.
Readers should distinguish between the petitions’ requested changes and rules currently in force. Any new testing requirement, warning label, sampling authority or disclosure standard would depend on agency action. Updates from FDA and FSIS, together with the complete petition documents, would clarify which proposals are formally before the agencies and what process applies to each.
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Key Questions
What are the seven petitions asking for?
They seek expanded testing for powdered infant formula; warnings on raw milk cheese and sprouts; Salmonella action and sampling for additional raw poultry; FDA sampling access at certain outbreak-linked feeding operations; and clearer disclosure of firms implicated in outbreaks. The supplied source describes only six proposals, so the seventh is not identified in the material provided.
Have FDA or FSIS adopted any of the proposals?
No adoption is reported in the supplied account. It describes requests directed to the agencies, not final rules or confirmed agency commitments.
Who is behind the petitions?
Marler says the work involved his staff and lawyers at Marler Clark, scientists, physicians, families affected by outbreaks and other food safety participants. He says 46 parents of 24 infants are co-petitioners on the formula-testing request.
What remains unknown?
The source does not confirm filing dates, agency responses or the full text of the requests. It also does not identify the seventh petition, and the description of the firm-disclosure proposal is incomplete.
Source: rss
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