Just Food

Cyclospora probe: Taylor Farms changes lettuce output at Mexico site

Taylor Farms chief executive Bruce Taylor said the company would take additional steps to make its food “even safer”.

Taylor Farms will “indefinitely suspend” the harvesting and processing of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico for sale in the US or Canada during the cyclospora season.

The decision follows the conclusion of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) investigation into the outbreak, in which the company’s central Mexico facility was identified a likely source of some of the cases reported this year.

In an open letter, Taylor Farms founder and chief executive Bruce Taylor said the suspension will apply during the US cyclospora season as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which mirrors the rainy season in central Mexico.

Alongside the seasonal suspension, Taylor said the company would also take further steps to make its food “even safer”.

These include expanding year-round health monitoring and increasing irrigation water and crop testing in central Mexico, as well as “leading and investing” in new research and technology to improve Cyclospora detection and prevention tools.

The California-based company will also take part in a public-private task force involving the FDA, scientists, industry leaders and public health officials. The group's mandate will be to identify lasting prevention measures for all fresh produce growers, Taylor said.

He added the FDA told the company in mid-July that shredded iceberg lettuce from the facility was a likely source of a portion of the cases. Taylor Farms then recalled all iceberg lettuce from the site and suspended production to allow a full investigation.

The FDA reported 12,883 infections with cyclospora, the parasite that causes intestinal illness cyclosporiasis. Two people died amid 570 hospitalisations.

During its work in Mexico, the FDA sampled water, soil, sediment and iceberg lettuce. It reported two cyclospora-positive environmental findings.

The agency said there was “not enough evidence to conclusively determine how contamination occurred,” but added the positive samples showed cyclospora was present in the growing and processing environment.