These veterans who’d survived the beaches of Iwo Jima were dying from eating melon. It haunts me every day.” —BILL MARLER
of that temperature. He noted that Washington, the scene of the crisis, was at the time the only state in the nation that required burgers to be heated to 155 degrees, and that few- er if any children would have been sickened had Jack in the Box fol- lowed the exceptional standard. Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and virtually every state has set 160 degrees as the safety threshold to be met. Do you know what it’s like for a father to be in an ICU room
was on a recent E.coli outbreak involving produce. Sure enough, mention was made of a possible Marler lawsuit. A wise-ass reporter covering the event—i.e., me—joked that it was only natural to see law- yers making money off people’s suf- fering. Wrong thing to say. The crowd turned hostile, defending Marler as the antagonist who made attendees do their jobs better. They portrayed him as a crusader, not some oppor- tunist. They pointed out that regulators once thought cooking a burger to an internal temperature of 145 degrees would kill any E.coli lurking in the patty. In lawsuits arising from the Jack in the Box poisonings, Marl- er harped on the ineffectiveness
thing. Plus, “If they don’t want me to sue them, they shouldn’t poison children.” Marler says he’s accused less often today of being an ambu- lance-chaser, in part because there are fewer food safety cases to chase. “From about 1993 to 2000, almost everything I did was related to ham- burgers and E.coli,” he recounts. “Most of that went away.” He’s played a major role in mak- ing that happen. Even potential courtroom adversaries say he’s been an industry conscience, using lawsuits (or the threat thereof) to goad operators and suppliers into following effective safety protocols. At a meeting years ago of chain food-safety executives, the focus
and watch as parents have to pull the plug on their kid?”
—BILL MARLER
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JANUARY 2025 RESTAURANT BUSINESS
ILLUSTRATION BY NICO HEINS/MIDJOURNEY
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