Federal officials have reaffirmed that iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms is still the likely source of a multi-state outbreak of Cyclospora, a microscopic parasite causing explosive diarrhea cases. The assertion was intended to clear up confusion sparked by a false positive test result from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA’s traceback investigations for the outbreak have consistently pointed to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms, which is grown in Central Mexico. The agency has found that multiple tracebacks led them to this conclusion, and it was the basis for the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publicly identifying Taylor Farms as the source of the outbreak on Friday.
Initially, the FDA’s traceback investigation focused on tracing back shredded iceberg lettuce eaten at Taco Bell locations. The messaging suggested that the contaminated lettuce may be limited to Taco Bell. A CDC press release on Friday warned consumers not to eat lettuce at Taco Bell locations in five states (Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia). It noted that ‘Shredded iceberg lettuce sold in grocery stores or served in other restaurants is not affected.’
However, the situation changed over the weekend. On Saturday, the FDA announced that a sample of Taylor Farms lettuce tested positive for Cyclospora. The result confirmed the traceback investigation findings and potentially extended the list of contaminated products. But on Sunday, the FDA deleted the information from its website, explaining that upon further review, the result was a false positive.
In a press briefing on Monday, FDA officials explained that the test result came from lettuce sampled at the border that was not included in Taylor Farms’ recall. Given that new illnesses are still being reported and the tested lettuce was not part of the outbreak recall, the FDA rushed to publicly disclose the information in hopes of preventing more illnesses.
However, upon further testing, it became clear that the genetic test for the parasite had returned a false result. Officials would not go into detail on what caused the faulty result, but contamination is a common source of false positives.
Taylor Farms seemed to celebrate the rescinded test result over the weekend, sparking confusion. ‘Today, FDA apologized to us,’ Taylor Farms wrote at the start of a statement Sunday. ‘Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake, and this was a false positive. To be clear, at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora,’ the statement read (emphasis theirs).
This response was followed by headlines suggesting the FDA may have blamed Taylor Farms in error. The Wall Street Journal reported the FDA ‘walked back’ an earlier detection, to which the FDA directly responded.
‘To clarify, this false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms,’ the agency said on social media.
In the press briefing Monday, FDA officials flatly denied issuing an apology to Taylor Farms. They further explained that the false result didn’t change anything about the situation and that outbreaks involving short-lived produce often lack confirmatory positive tests.
Although the testing turned out to be false, additional information over the weekend did seem to expand the scope of the outbreak—at least the publicly visible part of it. The New York Times reported that restaurants and retailers other than Taco Bell were removing iceberg lettuce they received from Taylor Farms. In many cases, the lettuce was sold in large bags for restaurants or service operations, and sometimes blended with romaine.
Walmart removed lettuces sold under its Marketside brand—which were included in the FDA’s notices but not in Taylor Farms’ recall list. Sysco, the nation’s largest food distributor, told the Times that it was removing lettuce products it had from Taylor Farms. So did US Foods, another large food distributor.
Jack in the Box restaurants also said they were affected by the recall. The Times noted that Taylor Farms’ recall notice is vague—it doesn’t list these distributors or retailers affected, only product codes and dates.
The FDA said on its website Saturday morning that Taylor Farms ‘has not publicly provided distribution information or a list of customers who received the product that was voluntarily removed from the market.’ The FDA later removed that statement, but the recall list remains.
Source: Original article