Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

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Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers.

Today, Listeria and Waffles and Liverwurst, e. coli and quarter-pounders, how safe is our food?

In this episode, Stephanie Desmond talks to Dr. Megan Davis, a Johns Hopkins veterinarian, and Dr. D.N. Williams, a former food safety official, about what causes these pathogens to spread.

They also talk about the detective work it takes

to find outbreaks and steps that we can take

to ensure the food we eat won't make us sick.

Let's listen.

Megan Davis and D.N. Williams.

Thanks so much for joining me.

It's such a pleasure.

Thank you for having us.

Of course.

So let's talk about food safety today. We are, the news is like

filled with reports of contaminated food, right? So we, there was this giant frozen waffle recall

for Listeria and, you know, quarter pounders potentially have E. coli in them. And then remember

over the summer, it was a deadly outbreak with

Boar's Head lunchmeats. So what's going on and why is this happening now, Megan?

That's a great question. So food safety is a perennial concern. And what happens is we have a pretty

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