The Rotten Apple Food Safety Podcast

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Is food fraud increasing? — new evidence revealed

* Hot drinks and cancer (really?!)

* Rogue robots in the warehouse

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 263 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* How are QA teams using AI right now? And what are the risks?

* Follow-up: Huge prison sentence for food fraud

* Food Safety News and Resources

* How (not) to handle raw coffee beans

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 262 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Does mass balance actually work for food fraud mitigation?

* Fridge-ageddon: how software vulnerabilities put food at risk

* Dried flavours: everything you ever wanted to know

* Food fraud gets a new Codex definition!

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 261 🍏

Cover image: Refrigeration outage at Fort Huachuca, Arizona (Fort Huachuca Facebook page, via Star...

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Food Code 2026: What you need to know

* Aussie outback treats

* Food fraud news (sand in sugar issues ongoing?)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 260 🍏

Cover image: US FDA

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* 8 Fresh ideas for food safety training

* Cool new tech I saw at the food fraud conference

* Follow-ups: ethylene glycol fraud and ant sentencing 🐜

* Food waste challenge competition: Winners and answers

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 259 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Sketchy sauce competition (the food waste challenge)

* AI-powered systems for food waste reduction

* Food safety news and resources roundup

* Packaging corner: PFAS in paper-based packaging

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 258 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Mycotoxins in food: What you need to know

* Follow-up: Cronobacter settlement $385 million

* Save time with The Rotten Apple podcast on Spotify

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 257 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* What’s really in wine? (Additives and processing aids explored)

* Your feedback needed: GFSI benchmarking of FFSC 22000

* The disturbing reason Corn Flakes were invented

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 256 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Supplier Approval Programs — from A to Z

* Corruption in Food Supply Chains: What Does It Look Like, How Do We Prevent It?

* What do ants taste like?

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 255 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* 3 food safety hazards no one was thinking about

* Out now: The Rotten Apple e-book

* The well-travelled fish finger

* Food fraud news: Do we finally have a Codex definition for food fraud?

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 254 🍏

Cover image: PFAS in potato plants near a military conflict, Shy et al., 2026

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* “I told you so” - the wooden pallet problem

* More new food safety hazards

* Food Safety News and Resources

* A bottomless pickle jar

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 253 🍏

Cover image: AI-generated

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Four Emerging Food Safety Risks

* Foodborne virus self-assessment

* Food Safety Resources - 2 free webinars

* Science meets hotdog (just for fun)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 252 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Free food safety resources

* Cyclospora from the frontlines

* Outsourced: Food fraud and co-manufacturers

* AI and food safety

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 251 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Tomato fraud bombshell

* 3 Food safety quick bites

* Traceability guidance

* Insane chip flavour (did you say “battery”?)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 250 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* The complete guide to EUDR for small and medium businesses

* 4 ways to improve your sanitation training

* A dead ant dessert

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 249 🍏

Cover image: Supply chain for palm oil. European Commission (2026)

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* It was the iceberg lettuce. Oh wait…

* Histamine in fish - a quick explainer

* Cocoa and cocaine?

* A pufferfish puffing

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 248 🍏

Cover image: High-histamine fish, Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Cyclospora: a growing food safety threat

* Food protection + PAS 96 webinar tomorrow

* Waste diversion fraud on my radar

* They did WHAT with the raw milk (Cheese maker shares a doozy)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 247 🍏

Cover image: Cyclospora, courtesy of CDC

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* The Pathogen Files: Campylobacter

* What’s new in the Knowledge Vault

* 2 Unusual food safety incidents

* Crimes against cheese

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 246 🍏

Cover image: Timeline of a Campylobacter outbreak, Gilpin et. al. (2020)

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Insights from the frontline of food fraud (Part II)

* Top 5 NCs to watch out for in 2027

* 3 quick food safety bites, plus the last word on pink pineapples

* Food fraud report (deep dive)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 245 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Food fraud’s frontier: unexpected insights from the Authentic Food Conference

* What’s new in SQF 10

* 3 food safety bites

* Pink pineapples, part II

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 244 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Case study: high-energy diversions and millions of counterfeit products land criminals in jail

* PAS 96:2026 unpacked for you

* Food safety news

* Illegal pineapples

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 243 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* It’s World Food Safety Day (yesterday)

* Webinar archive unlocked

* Food Safety News Roundup

* What does fraud taste like?

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 242 🍏

Cover image: Generated

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Lab confidentiality - a thorny issue

* Highlights from the food fraud conference

* The science of airline food

* Potato Salad Competition: answers and winners

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 241 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Deadly potato toxins - what you need to know

* Competition: Safe or Sorry? Potato Salad Challenge

* Food fraud in potatoes

* 3 fun food facts from Iceland

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 240 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Laboratory verification challenges

* Foods of Iceland

* Food Safety News and Resources

* The child slave who changed vanilla cultivation forever

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 239 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Red flags in suppliers: how to spot them + what to do about them

* Is a 5-log reduction actually correct?

* We drank milk before we could digest it

* The easiest way to make the world smarter (the history of iodine supplementation)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 238 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Everything you need to know about rotavirus

* Spice Fraud - An Introduction

* FSSC 22000 V7 is here

* Craft beers: sometimes good, sometimes ?hairy?

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 237 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Free webinar (with me) on Friday

* Peanut butter’s surprising pathogens

* Mycotoxins in peanuts

* Weird peanut butters from around the globe

* How peanut butter is (actually) made (humour)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 236 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Maple syrup fraud in Canada (gulp!)

* What is immature honey?

* Food on Artemis II

* US honey results: good (or are they?)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 235 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* 6 Food Fraud Criminology Studies Unpacked (with actionable takeaways for food professionals)

* Bacillus cereus 101

* The curious case of the Ant Powder God

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 234 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Work-free zone

* Nerding out on techy chocolate

* Your supplements are a lie

* Resources you may have missed

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 233 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* New horizon scan archive

* Packaging corner: recycled PP containers

* What’s in a (food) name?

* Fred designs a potato chip (just for fun)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 232 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Food safety: what’s in store for 2026?

* Tariffs and food fraud risk: what you need to know

* Food Safety News and Resources

* No snow? No problem! How to cool your food in 1601

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 231 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Hidden traps in food testing: lessons from a protein bar lawsuit

* 18 Food defence blind spots + a self-assessment checklist

* TraceMap, a new tool for fraud detection and traceability

* Turning styrofoam into cinnamon candy (just for fun)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 230 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* The Middle East conflict, a 10,000 feet view for food professionals

* What to watch out for in the coming months

* Food Safety News and Resources

* Making honey cough drops

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 229 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Mass balance for food safety systems

* When food fraud turns deadly: milk adulteration kills 6 people

* Food safety news and resources roundup

* How natural food colours are made

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 228 🍏

Cover image: For illustrative purposes only, AI-generated

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Food safety risks from food fraud (and vice versa)

* The Rotten Apple e-Book

* Glyphosate update

* Venemous lionfish ceviche (it’s a thing?!)

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 227 🍏

Cover image: National Whistleblowers Center

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Shocking rates of fraud in herbal products

* Data exchange in traceability: what you need to know

* Food safety news and resources

* Case study: Tiny maintenance failure causes huge problems

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 226 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Food fraud talks

* Cheese time: Parmesan in the spotlight

* Top 5 Non-conformances from BRCGS

* Avocado’s number

* Food fraud news with crispy snails and no-milk milk

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 225 🍏

The Rotten Apple is an inside view of food safety, food fraud and supply chains for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends.

In this week’s episode:

* Real-world lessons in Listeria eradication (case study)

* Webinar tomorrow: Food fraud trends and predictions for 2026

* Food fraud is surging worldwide. Or is it?

🍏 For a transcript and sources, see Issue 224 🍏

Cover image: Møretrø, et al (2026)