The salad mix identified in Cyclospora outbreak investigations in Iowa and Nebraska came from a Mexican company that processes foodservice salad, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today in an outbreak update.
The FDA said its trace-back investigation found that the salad mix that Iowa and Nebraska officials linked to the outbreak was supplied to restaurants in those states by a common supplier, Taylor Farms de Mexico, S de RL de CV. It added that its investigation has not implicated consumer packages sold in grocery stores.
The restaurants linked to the clusters include Olive Garden and Red Lobster outlets, both of which chains are owned by Darden Restaurants, FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman told CIDRAP News.
According to a CBS News report today, Darden Restaurants issued a statement saying, "Nothing we have seen prior to this announcement gave us any reason to be concerned about the products we've received from this supplier. Iowa and Nebraska health authorities have said this is not an ongoing outbreak and the product is no longer in the food supply in those states. The health and safety of our guests is our top priority, and it is completely safe to eat in our restaurants."
Taylor Farms de Mexico has been cooperating with FDA investigators, and the FDA and the firm will conduct an environmental assessment of the firm's processing facility to find what caused the outbreak and to establish measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again, the FDA said.
The facility is part of Taylor Farms, a Salinas, Calif.- based company that has 11 plants throughout the United States, plus one in San Miguel Allende, Mexico. The city is in Mexico's Guanajuato state, in the north central part of the country.
Taylor Farms issued a statement today that none of its other 11 facilities are connected to the illnesses and that its Mexico plant processes produce only for the foodservice industry. It also confirmed earlier statements from Iowa and Nebraska that the product supplied during June is no longer in the supply chain and that bagged salad is safe to eat. "The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority," it said.
The company said its facility is state-of-the-art and has an exceptional food safety record.
During the plant's most recent FDA inspection in 2011, authorities found no notable issues, according to the agency. In light of the current probe the FDA said it is increasing its surveillance of green leafy products exported from Mexico to the United States.
Iowa and Nebraska health officials have linked infections in their states to a prepackaged salad mix that contained romaine and iceberg lettuce, red cabbage, and carrots. The FDA said again today that it's not clear whether cases reported from other states are part of the same outbreak, and investigations in other states are continuing.
No restaurants associated with the outbreak were publicly named until the FDA mentioned Oliver Garden and Red Lobster today. Iowa health officials have cited state confidentiality laws that prohibit naming sources in outbreaks and has said the products are no longer in the state's food supply.
Nebraska 's investigation is ongoing and shows that the salad mix came from a variety of outlets, Leah Bucco-White, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS), told CIDRAP News.
"We're sharing our information with the FDA, and we know the FDA is acting on our information and information from other states as well as pursuing other leads," she said. "Its investigators are doing a trace back to find out where the salad mix items were grown, processed and distributed and to pinpoint the exact source of contamination."
In Texas, health officials have confirmed 140 Cyclospora infections so far, according to an update today. Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, told CIDRAP News that so far investigators have not determined a common source for the outbreak.
Meanwhile, more states affected by the outbreak reported additional infections to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raising the official total to 400, according to an update today.
State updates yesterday from Texas and Nebraska add 20 more cases, pushing the total in the multistate outbreak to 428.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, which announced its first two cases yesterday, said one of the patients got sick after eating lettuce in Texas and the other did not report eating lettuce or salad.
See also:
Aug 2 FDA outbreak update
Aug 2 Taylor Farms statement
Aug 2 CDC update
Aug 1 LDHH press release
Aug 2 TDSHS update
