Cyclosporiasis outbreak still connected to Taylor Farms and iceberg lettuce

A federal investigation into the source of a multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis continues to point toward an importer of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico, according to an afternoon call with U.S Food and Drug Administration officials.

This comes after the company, Taylor Farms de Mexico, recalled their lettuce from central Mexico on Friday. Over the weekend, the FDA mistakenly thought they had found the parasite in one of the importer’s non-recalled products before realizing it was a false positive.

Tracing efforts by the agency still link Taylor Farms’ recalled products to the disease, which causes aggressive diarrhea in people, and the FDA later retracted the statement.

Taylor Farms produces lettuce for Taco Bell and several grocery retailers.

“We’ll continue to work with Taylor Farms to investigate whether any other items are impacted,” Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said in the phone call.

He said his team has identified multiple clusters of the parasite since May, three of which are no longer active. The largest cluster, which sickened a consumer as recently as last week, is still being investigated by the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state partners.

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The FDA’s Acting Deputy Commissioner for Food Donald Prater, who is overseeing the outbreak, said that the agency has increased surveillance testing of imports along the southern U.S. border. That testing is where the false positive came from, he said, explaining that the agency notified the public because the product being sampled was not a part of Taylor Farms’ initial recall. Authorities learned that the results had been a false positive through a quality control check.

“FDA’s trace back and outbreak data continues to converge on iceberg lettuce from central Mexico,” Prater said, adding that false positives are not common within the agency and they are continuing to work with the CDC to remove all of the contaminated product.

The parasite is very difficult to detect in food, especially in lettuce, which has a short shelf life. Cyclospora can show up in low numbers on the produce. Officials use a molecular test to rapidly search for the parasite on imported products.

Steve Mandernach, executive director for the Association of Food and Drug Officials, described locating the parasite like a much harder version of finding a “needle in a haystack.”

Cyclospora is not routinely tested for and methods for identifying it haven’t advanced as fast as authorities would like, he said. This is the time of year when public health officials are on alert for the bug.

Mandernach recalls previous outbreaks of the parasite spurring illness in the early 2000s. Back then, authorities discovered far fewer cases — in part, he said, because testing was less accessible and involved highly specialized laboratory equipment.

“Among the [parasites] that we see somewhat regularly in the U.S., this probably is one of the most difficult to identify,” he said.

In Baltimore, the outbreak sparked a variety of opinions among grocery shoppers.

Ashley Coby, 37, bought ground beef from the Superfresh in Southwest Baltimore for a baked ziti she’s planning to cook. She said she has heard warnings about the cyclosporiasis outbreak, but is not concerned about it. Coby said she doesn’t typically eat lettuce because she prefers spinach.

“People should already be taking extra care with washing their vegetables,” she said. “And then it’s just diarrhea. People get diarrhea on the regular.”

Ali Coates walked out of Superfresh on Monday with a bag of bread and hot sauce. Since the outbreak of the diarrhea-causing parasite, he said he has been eating frozen vegetables, which have a longer shelf life.

Others were more concerned.

Tracy Oehler, 57, and George Oehler, 56, of Delaware, who were on a grocery run to Whole Foods in Harbor East, said they were warned by George’s nutritionist to avoid eating fresh leafy greens as he undergoes cancer treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

“Most people want to eat a salad, refer to salad as being healthy,” Tracy said. But with George’s weakened immune system, he would have a harder time recovering from a food-borne illness, she said.