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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, labels, outbreak investigations and public disclosures. The petitions are proposals, not adopted rules; the supplied report describes six of the seven in detail, and the outcome of agency review is not established.
Food safety lawyer Bill Marler says he is submitting seven petitions to the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, asking the agencies to expand testing and warnings and change how they investigate and disclose foodborne outbreaks. The proposals follow outbreaks involving infant formula, poultry and other foods, but they are requests for agency action, not changes that have already taken effect.
Marler’s account in Food Safety News describes petitions developed with his law firm’s staff, outside scientists and physicians, and families affected by outbreaks. He says the requests concern actions agencies previously promised, practices applied to some foods but not others, or advice communicated publicly without being placed on product labels. The article says there are seven petitions, but the supplied text gives details for only six; the seventh is not identified in the material available here.
One petition asks FDA to require testing of finished powdered infant formula for Clostridium botulinum and testing of dairy ingredients used to make it. Marler cites reports of 52 infants hospitalized 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 joined that petition. These figures and descriptions are reported in the source article; the petition’s filing status and FDA response are not specified in the supplied material.
Two other FDA petitions seek prescribed warnings on cheese made from unpasteurized milk and on raw or lightly cooked sprouts, including sprouts in prepared salads, sandwiches and wraps. The cheese request also calls for FDA to complete its review of the 60-day aging rule and require producers relying on aging to validate its effectiveness. Marler argues that existing public advice about avoiding sprouts for certain groups should appear where consumers choose the product.
A petition to USDA’s food-safety service asks it to classify Salmonella at or above 1 CFU per gram as an adulterant in raw ground chicken, ground turkey and chicken parts, or alternatively in products containing three specified serotypes. It also asks the agency to begin verification sampling it had announced and later postponed, according to Marler. The other two described requests ask FDA for limited outbreak-triggered access to sample implicated animal feeding operations and for a written standard to disclose firms implicated by outbreak evidence.
Changes Could Reach Labels and Inspections
If agencies adopt the requests, the effects could reach consumers before a product is eaten and investigators during an outbreak. Testing requirements could add checks for hazards in formula and poultry; on-package warnings could make existing public-health advice visible at the point of purchase. The petitions also seek access to environmental and animal samples at certain implicated feeding operations, which Marler says could help investigators examine possible sources.
The disclosure request addresses a different public consequence: how quickly people can identify products or businesses linked to an investigation. Marler points to cases in which agencies announced an outbreak vehicle without naming a firm, while the public later learned a brand through litigation. That is his account of the cases, not a finding here that any company was responsible. A disclosure standard could affect both consumer information and the interests of firms under investigation, making the evidence threshold and protections against premature attribution central issues.
For readers, the immediate distinction is between proposed safeguards and current requirements. The petitions do not themselves change what manufacturers must test, what labels must say, or what information agencies release. Any such change would depend on agency decisions and, where applicable, formal rulemaking.
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Earlier Rules and Agency Decisions
The petitions build on rules and decisions described in Marler’s article. Federal regulations already require finished powdered infant formula testing for Cronobacter and Salmonella, while the petition seeks to add another hazard and test dairy-based ingredients. For raw-milk cheese, the source describes a 60-day aging rule dating to the 1940s and says FDA announced a reevaluation in 2013 that remains unfinished.
For raw poultry, Marler cites a May 2024 FSIS determination that Salmonella at or above 1 CFU per gram is an adulterant in breaded stuffed raw chicken products. He argues the agency’s reasoning should also apply to chicken parts and ground poultry. The article says FSIS planned to address other raw poultry in a later rulemaking, withdrew that proceeding in April 2025 and did not replace it. It also says verification sampling announced in 2024 was postponed indefinitely in December 2025.
Marler further invokes FDA’s 1975 action on Salmonella in pet turtles as precedent for using section 361 of the Public Health Service Act to sample at implicated animal operations. On outbreak disclosures, he says FDA has named farms, processors or brands in at least eight cases since 2006, but has not set out a written standard. Those historical descriptions and legal arguments are attributed to the petitioner; they do not establish how the agencies will interpret their authority in response.
“This year I have spent a fair amount of time trying to put myself out of business.”
— Bill Marler, in Food Safety News
Agency Responses Remain Unknown
The supplied report does not identify the seventh petition or provide its subject, and it does not establish whether all seven petitions have been formally filed or accepted. It also contains no FDA or FSIS response, decision timeline, or indication that either agency has agreed to act. No requested rule change is confirmed by the source material.
Important details would need to be resolved in any agency process, including the wording and scope of proposed warnings, the testing methods and thresholds, the evidence needed to trigger sampling or identify a firm, and how agencies would address confidential information and the risk of naming a business before an investigation is complete. The supplied article presents Marler’s account and arguments; it does not include agency assessments or responses from the affected companies.
Petitions Await Federal Review
The next step is for FDA and FSIS to receive and review the petitions, if they have been formally submitted, and decide whether to grant, deny or otherwise respond to each request. The source material does not give response deadlines or scheduled hearings. If agencies pursue rule changes, they may need to develop proposals and provide a public process for comment; the specific path will depend on each petition and the agencies’ decisions.
Readers should watch for confirmation of the seventh petition, agency acknowledgment of filings, and any public notices or responses that explain what the agencies will consider. Until then, the requests remain proposals by the petitioners, while existing food-safety rules and outbreak practices remain in place unless agencies announce changes.
Key Questions
What do the seven petitions ask federal agencies to do?
They seek changes involving powdered infant formula testing, warnings for raw-milk cheese and sprouts, Salmonella policy and sampling for raw poultry, access to sample implicated animal feeding operations, and disclosure of firms linked to outbreaks. The supplied material describes six petitions in detail and does not identify the seventh.
Have FDA or FSIS adopted these proposals?
No adoption is established in the source material. The petitions are requests for agency action, and the supplied report does not include agency decisions or responses.
What testing change is proposed for powdered infant formula?
The petition asks FDA to add botulinum neurotoxin-producing clostridia to finished-product testing requirements and to require testing of dairy ingredients used in formula. These are proposed requirements, not confirmed changes to current rules.
Why do the petitions seek warnings on some foods?
Marler argues that consumers should see warnings on packages of raw-milk cheese and raw or lightly cooked sprouts, rather than relying only on public-health advice issued elsewhere. The petitions would require FDA to decide whether and how such labels should be mandated.
When will the agencies respond?
The supplied report gives no response deadlines or decision dates. The timing and outcome of review remain unclear.
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