Last updated: July 9, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains what information Food Poisoning News (“we,” “our,” or “us”) collects when you visit foodpoisoningnews.com, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We aim to describe only what our website actually does. If any part of this policy is unclear, please contact us.
Who we are and how to contact us
Food Poisoning News is a food-safety news website that reports on food recalls, foodborne-illness outbreaks, and related public-health information for a United States audience. Information about who operates and funds this site is described on our Ownership & Funding page.
You can reach us about this policy, or to make a privacy request, through our contact page. Please use that route for any question about your information.
Who this policy covers
This website is intended for residents of the United States. It is published in English and covers U.S. and Canadian food-safety news. It is not directed at, and we do not target, visitors in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or other regions. If you access the site from outside the United States, please understand that your information will be processed in the United States, as described below.
Information we collect automatically
When you visit the site, some information is collected automatically through the tools we use to run and measure it.
Google Analytics 4
We use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-QRNYVGEPKZ), added through the Google Site Kit plugin, on every page of the site. Google Analytics uses cookies (for example _ga and _gid) and similar identifiers to help us understand how visitors find and use our articles, for example which pages are viewed, approximate location derived from IP address, device and browser type, and how visitors move through the site.
Google processes this data on our behalf. To learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services and the Google Privacy Policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics across all sites by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Content delivery, security, and server logs
Our site is served through Cloudflare, a content-delivery and security network that sits in front of the site, and we use WP Rocket and RocketCDN to speed up page loading. Cloudflare processes visitors’ IP addresses to route and protect traffic and sets its own cookies (for example __cf_bm and cf_clearance) for security and bot-management purposes. Like most websites, our hosting environment also keeps standard server logs, which may record your IP address, browser type, the pages you request, and the date and time of your visit.
Google reCAPTCHA v3
We use Google reCAPTCHA v3 to protect the site against spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA loads on every page of the site, including pages that do not contain a form, and it collects hardware and software information (such as device and application data) along with information about how you interact with the site, and sends that information to Google for security and abuse-prevention purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. As of April 2, 2026, Google acts as a data processor for reCAPTCHA data and we act as the data controller. Because Google no longer displays these links on the reCAPTCHA badge, we provide them here.
Information you give us
Contact and other forms
When you submit our contact form, you provide your name, email address, and the message you write, along with any other fields you complete. Our contact form is built with Contact Form 7, and submissions are saved by the Contact Form CFDB7 plugin, which stores every submission in our website’s database. This means the information you send us through the form is retained on our server. We keep these submissions until we delete them, and we are establishing a routine schedule for removing older records. We also operate a form on our homepage (built with Elementor). Information you enter into it is submitted to us in the same way.
Newsletter (Mailchimp)
If you sign up for our email newsletter, we collect the email address you provide. Our newsletter is sent using Mailchimp, a service operated by Intuit. Your email address is stored and processed by Mailchimp so we can send you our updates. You can see how Mailchimp handles your information in the Mailchimp Privacy Policy.
Every newsletter email we send identifies Food Poisoning News as the sender, uses a non-deceptive subject line, and includes a clear unsubscribe link. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any newsletter, and we will honor that request promptly. You may also ask us to remove you by using our contact page.
Comments and Gravatar
Comments on our articles are open, and anything you post in a comment is public. When you leave a comment, we collect and store the name and email address you enter, your comment itself, your IP address, and your browser’s user-agent string, and this information is retained with the article. When you submit a comment, a string created from your email address (a “hash”), together with your IP address, may be sent to the Gravatar service, operated by Automattic, to check whether you have a public profile picture to display. You can review Automattic’s practices in the Automattic Privacy Policy. Please do not include sensitive personal information in a public comment.
Other site features
We use the Buttonizer plugin to display a floating contact/navigation button, and Simple Local Avatars to store profile images for our contributors on our own server. These features support how the site looks and works and are noted here for completeness.
Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small files stored on your device. Our site uses cookies from Google Analytics (for example _ga and _gid), Cloudflare (for example __cf_bm and cf_clearance), and Google reCAPTCHA.
We want to be clear about how this works. Our site does not currently show a cookie-consent banner, and we do not ask for your consent before these cookies are set. The cookies described above are set when you load the site. You are not obligated to accept them, and you can control or remove them in the following ways:
- Adjust your browser settings to block or delete cookies, or to warn you before a cookie is set. Most browsers let you do this in their privacy or security settings.
- Install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to opt out of Google Analytics.
- Clear the cookies already stored by your browser at any time.
- Unsubscribe from our newsletter using the link in any email we send.
- Contact us with any question about the data we hold.
Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the site work.
Do Not Track
Some browsers can send a “Do Not Track” (DNT) signal. There is no common industry standard for how sites should respond to these signals. Our site does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals. In addition, third parties (in particular Google, through the analytics and reCAPTCHA services described above) may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use our site. We do not control how those third parties respond to Do Not Track signals.
Who we share information with
We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with the service providers that help us run and measure the site, as described above:
- Google, for analytics (Google Analytics 4) and spam/abuse protection (reCAPTCHA).
- Cloudflare, for content delivery, performance, and security.
- Mailchimp (Intuit), for sending our email newsletter, if you subscribe.
- Automattic / Gravatar, to display a profile picture when you comment, if you have a Gravatar account.
We may also disclose information if we are required to do so by law, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of our readers, the public, or our site.
How we use your information
We use the information described above to:
- operate, secure, and improve the site
- understand which of our articles readers find useful
- respond to messages you send us through our forms
- send our newsletter to people who subscribe
- display and moderate comments
- protect the site against spam, fraud, and abuse
We do not sell your personal information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not run advertising or remarketing pixels on the site.
Data retention
We keep the personal information you provide for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy. Contact-form submissions saved by CFDB7 and comments are retained in our database until we remove them, and we are establishing a routine schedule for deleting older records. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we keep your email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. You can ask us to delete information we hold about you at any time through our contact page.
Your choices and how to make a privacy request
You can ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. To make a request, use our contact page and describe what you would like us to do. We may need to verify your request before we act on it, and we will respond as promptly as we reasonably can.
California residents
Because our site collects personal information from visitors, California’s Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) requires us to post this policy, describe the categories of information we collect and the third parties we share it with, explain how you can review and request changes to your information, disclose how we respond to Do Not Track signals, and give the effective date of this policy and how we notify you of changes. Those disclosures appear throughout this document.
We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not believe we currently qualify as a “business” under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Even so, as a courtesy, if you are a California resident you may ask us to:
- tell you the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you
- delete personal information we hold about you
- correct inaccurate personal information
- opt out of any sale or sharing of your personal information (although, as noted, we do not sell or share it).
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these choices. To make a request, use our contact page.
Visitors in the EU, UK, and elsewhere
This site is intended for residents of the United States. It is offered in English, covers U.S. and Canadian food-safety news, takes no payments, and does not run behavioral-advertising profiling. We do not target visitors in the European Union or the United Kingdom, and we do not knowingly monitor the behavior of people in those regions for profiling or advertising. For those reasons, we take the position that the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation do not apply to this site. If you are located in the EU or UK and would like to make a request about your information, you may still contact us and we will consider it as a courtesy.
Children’s privacy
This is a general-audience news site. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. We do not use an age gate. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us.
Data security
We take reasonable measures to protect the information we hold, including serving the site over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection and relying on Cloudflare for security and bot protection. However, no method of transmitting or storing information over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.
Where your information is processed
Our website is hosted on a server located in the United States (running Plesk) and is served through Cloudflare. Information collected through the site, including the data described in this policy, is processed in the United States.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in the tools we use or in the law. When we make a material change, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and post the revised policy here. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your information, please reach us through our contact page.
Last updated: July 9, 2026