As patient counts continue to rise in an outbreak of infections from the Cyclospora parasite, the company whose iceberg lettuce is likely the cause of thousands of the infections continues to deflect accusations.
On Aug. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increased its patient count in the outbreak to 6,358 with 278 hospitalizations. That is up from the 1,947 that the CDC had been reporting for the past week. The patients had symptom onset from June 21 through July 30.
That 15-state outbreak is separate from another cluster of outbreaks the CDC is tracking. The agency has identified 10,468 laboratory-confirmed cases and another 12,255 that are awaiting further investigation in those outbreaks.
For the outbreak with 6,358 patients, the CDC and Food and Drug Administration are considering the most likely source of the parasite to be iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms’ central Mexico operation. The Salinas, CA, company recalled its iceberg lettuce from the Mexico operation on July 17.
The company continues to play down its possible involvement in the outbreak. It has said its internal testing has shown there is no contamination with the parasites. Government testing is ongoing and is as yet inconclusive. Also, it is extremely difficult to determine if there is contamination in specific produce products because by the time testing is initiated the produce has either been eaten or it is past its shelf life so there is nothing left to test that may have been related to any given outbreak.
Earlier in the outbreak, Taylor Farms issued a statement saying that the company has spent $200 million on food safety efforts across its entire business. The company annually has $7 billion in revenues, so the $200 million number is less than 3 percent of its budget.
“Taylor Farms has operated for more than 30 years and produces billions of servings of safe, high-quality fresh produce annually,” the statement said. “Throughout, the company has been at the forefront of advances in food safety. We have cooperated fully with regulators in any instance where food safety concerns were raised, taking corrective action where warranted.”
Frank Yiannas, a former FDA deputy commissioner for food policy and response, told CNN News that the scale of the current Cyclospora outbreak should be an alarm bell for America’s food industry and government agencies.
“We need to rethink our approaches,” Yiannas said. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”
In 2013 U.S. health authorities linked a cyclospora outbreak to Taylor Farms, tracing it back to the same central Mexico facility implicated in this year’s outbreak.
An FDA investigation of the Mexican location and surrounding farms found the facility was washing salad mix components “in recycled wash water” that could “create the potential for cross contamination and spread of” cyclospora, according to CNN, and noted that some employee hand-washing facilities “do not appear to be of sanitary design.” The agency recommended the facility reevaluate its procedures.
