What makes a food safety story newsworthy at POLITICO
POLITICO's food coverage prioritizes outbreaks and food safety events that affect policy and vice versa — where agency response and regulatory change are as much the story as the outbreak itself.
“We tend to be a little more focused on the policy side and less on the play-by-play. We are often focused on the lawmaker, the agency, the regulators…” — Marcia Brown
The stories that have pulled her attention most are ones where an outbreak reveals what a regulatory agency did, failed to do, or was prevented from doing. For example, the FDA investigation into Raw Farm and raw milk-linked illnesses mattered at POLITICO because the current administration had publicly endorsed raw milk — putting the regulator's response directly in tension with its own leadership.
The 2022 infant formula crisis was covered extensively at POLITICO because every new development kept raising the same question: how did the FDA miss this for so long, and who was responsible?
The structural limits of food safety journalism
Most initial recall coverage repeats the public advisory, and POLITICO doesn't cover every advisory that comes out. Even when outlets do go deeper, Marcia notes that readers rarely make it past the first three or four paragraphs — so the depth doesn't always reach the people who need it.
“There's certainly room for more in-depth analysis and deeper reporting — but that doesn't necessarily mean the reader is actually getting that information, even if we did that in the story.” — Marcia Brown
The stories that earn sustained coverage are the ones that keep generating new developments. The infant formula crisis has run for months and is still generating coverage in 2026. Two Clostridium botulinum outbreaks in infant formula — ByHeart in late 2025, Nara Organics in 2026 — share a suspected dairy ingredient supplier, and the root cause of the first outbreak was never publicly resolved before the second one began.
The regulatory fights Marcia expects to define the next year
The regulatory calendar for the next year is unusually crowded on the nutrition and food safety side, and Marcia has been covering most of it from the start.
Front-of-pack nutrition labeling is still unresolved — the comment period on the Biden administration's proposed rule closed in July 2025 and no final rule has followed. The GRAS self-affirmation pathway is under active pressure after HHS directed FDA to explore closing it in March 2025. And the definition of ultra-processed food remains, as Marcia puts it, anyone's guess.
“The definition of ultra-processed foods is going to consume us in many ways, because it's hard to define. Regulators are struggling with how exactly to define that, and the industry is certainly going to push back.” — Marcia Brown
The Make America Healthy Again movement has scrambled traditional political lines, with policy positions that historically came from the left finding broad uptake across the spectrum, making today’s regulatory fights genuinely unpredictable.
Why food safety professionals should talk to reporters
A story told without the people closest to the science or the policy will always be a less accurate one. Marcia asks that food safety professionals engage with reporters more often.
“If you have the chance to lend your perspective to a story, the story will be fuller and more accurate.” — Marcia Brown
Marcia talks to many people who are never quoted, simply to understand how a process works or why a regulation is written the way it is. A reporter who understands the industry before a crisis hits is less likely to get it wrong when something breaks.
Why trust in the news has eroded — and what reporters can do about it
When Frank speaks to audiences, he asks the same question — how many of you trust what you hear in the news? They usually laugh. He believes the Walter Cronkite era had far fewer places to get information, and a shared sense of authority that came with it. Today that shared authority is gone, replaced by a fragmented media landscape where every person navigates their own sources.
“Journalists often assume that people understand how our jobs work — why we choose certain quotes, why the story is a certain length, why we wrote it on this day and not that one. We have to help people understand how much work goes into the reporting.” — Marcia Brown
Showing the work behind the reporting is what earns trust in an environment where it's in short supply. Who did you talk to? How do you know what you know? For food safety professionals, engaging with journalists, including “off the record” and at smaller outlets, is part of how accurate information makes it into public discourse.
This episode of Smarter Food Safety is available now, wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about the host, Frank Yiannas, and why Ecolab is partnering on this show, read our profile here.
Episode Field Notes
Terms and resources worth bookmarking for food and beverage operators this year.
POLITICO's Morning Ag newsletter: The daily briefing Marcia references as one of the ways POLITICO covers food safety and agriculture policy for subscribers, particularly when a recall or outbreak doesn't warrant a standalone story.
FDA front-of-pack nutrition labeling proposed rule: The Biden administration proposed rule that remains in regulatory limbo, pending a decision by the current administration on whether to adopt, revise, or withdraw it.
Food Fix: The independent food policy publication launched by Helena Bottemiller Evich, Marcia's former Politico colleague, whom Marcia identifies as having covered the 2022 infant formula crisis before leaving to start her own outlet.
Food Safety News: The dedicated food safety publication both Marcia and Frank mention as part of the Washington food policy media ecosystem, covering food safety closely and continuously alongside outlets like Politico and STAT News.
