Lettuce. Blueberries. Eggs. Jalapeños. Why are there so many food-safety scares this summer?

Why does food feel scary in 2026? d3sign/Getty Images In 2026, Americans were warned about Cyclospora in lettuce, E. coli in berries, and Salmonella in jalapeños.

There are four main factors driving this barrage of recalls.

New technology and climate each play a role.

Bill Marler's business is booming — and that's not great for the rest of us.

Marler is a food safety lawyer, defending people who've been sickened by foodborne illness .

He has been doing this for 33 years, with such high-profile wins that he's become a towering figure in the food safety world.

This year, he's so slammed with foodborne-illness cases that, for the first time in years, he's expanding his team — hiring another lawyer and a couple of paralegals.

"We just have too much shit to do," Marler said.

This summer alone, Americans have been warned about a massive Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce — 10,930 confirmed illnesses, 454 hospitalizations, and two deaths — plus Salmonella in jalapeños and eggs and E. coli in frozen blueberries .

Then there are the recalls: bread that may contain metal fragments, fruit bars that may contain glass, and foods pulled for possible bacterial contamination or undeclared allergens.

By August, the FDA's 2026 public health advisories had covered what felt like everything, from cheese to infant formula.

"As a consumer, you're looking at this like, well, what the hell's safe to eat?" Marler said.

America is having a headline-grabbing food-safety summer.

Some of that is perception: We're better at finding outbreaks, and recall counts can be misleading.