Outlet profile

Food Poison Journal

U.S. food safety advocacy, consumer protection orientation

Owned byMarler Clark, Inc., PS — a Seattle-based plaintiff's law firm specializing in foodborne illness litigation, operated by founding attorney Bill Marler

FundingOperated and funded by Marler Clark law firm as a marketing and public-advocacy platform; no paywall or subscription; law firm's litigation revenue provides financial basis

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Food Poison Journal was created by Bill Marler, a personal injury attorney whose career in food safety litigation began with the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, one of the deadliest foodborne illness events in U.S. history. Marler Clark, which he co-founded in 1998, became the country's best-known law firm for representing foodborne illness victims. The journal emerged in the late 2000s as a companion to the firm's informational site foodborneillness.com, functioning as a blog and news feed where Marler and colleagues track outbreaks, recalls, and regulatory developments. The site sits alongside other Marler Clark publications including Food Safety News and Real Raw Milk Facts. Bill Marler used his platform to advocate for passage of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law in 2011. The firm and Marler's advocacy work were profiled in the 2023 Netflix documentary 'Poisoned.' Because the publication is run by attorneys who profit from food safety failures, it has an inherent institutional interest in publicizing outbreaks and criticizing regulatory gaps — a conflict of interest the site does not formally disclose. Since 2025, the journal has been sharply critical of the Trump administration's reductions to FDA staffing, cuts to food safety budgets, and rollback of traceability rules.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-08-20; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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