Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Spreads to Nine States, Sickening Over 11,500
Tracing the source of the widespread foodborne illness proves challenging amid complex recalls and regulatory delays.
Sarah Connor
A widespread cyclosporiasis outbreak has now expanded to nine US states, with over 11,500 people suspected to have been sickened this summer.
Initial investigations linked iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants to cyclospora cases across five affected states.
Restaurants and retailers, including Walmart, Jack in the Box, and Taco Bell, pulled food from shelves as a precautionary measure.
Foot traffic at Taco Bell restaurants plummeted 30.9 percent on July 17, a stark contrast to the year's average for Fridays, according to Placer.ai data.
This decline followed the identification of Taylor Farms de Mexico as the single supplier of the implicated iceberg lettuce.
Taylor Farms issued a recall notice, yet its reliance on internal product numbers complicated the identification of affected products.
incredibly weird
Katelyn Jetelina described the actual recall notice from Taylor Farms as 'incredibly weird' due to its requirement for decoding.
Taylor Farms maintains the FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora, a point of contention in the ongoing investigation.
A spokesperson for Taylor Farms confirmed the company undertakes an independent investigation of its central Mexico facility.
Mexican health officials announced the parasite was not detected in lettuce or water at the Taylor Farms plant in Guanajuato.
The FDA apologized to Taylor Farms on Sunday, despite no public information about such an apology.
Beyond the initial lettuce link, officials in North Carolina identified parsley and cilantro, in addition to lettuce, as potentially tied to the state’s 561 confirmed cases.
Nine illnesses were tied to lettuce at the Cheshire Medical Center cafeteria in Keene, New Hampshire.
The recall of products during this outbreak proved unusually complicated, plagued by poor communication, politicization, and the delay of a new regulatory rule.
(Unnamed Health Officials) indicated that This new rule could have helped trace the cyclosporiasis outbreak faster, mitigating its spread and protecting more consumers.
A new Food Traceability Rule, proposed in 2023 to help track high-risk foods, now plans to take effect in early 2028.
This new rule could have helped trace the cyclosporiasis outbreak faster, mitigating its spread and protecting more consumers.
Taylor Farms donated $1 million to Maga Inc, a Trump-affiliated Super Pac, in 2023.
Executives also met with the White House and the FDA to distance themselves from the cyclospora outbreak.
Patients report agonizing symptoms of stomach cramps, with 308 hospitalizations related to the outbreak; no deaths have been reported.
Health officials recommend washing hands and fresh produce thoroughly.
Cooking food to at least 158F (70C) kills the parasite.