Key takeaways:
- Shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell restaurants in five states is the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak.
- Lettuce served at other restaurants or sold in grocery stores is not affected, the CDC said.
Health officials have identified shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in five states as the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened thousands of people, the CDC confirmed Friday.
The agency said an investigation conducted by the FDA tracked the affected lettuce to a single supplier in Mexico.
Health officials linked the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bells in five states. Image: Robson90 – stock.adobe.com
The affected states are Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. The CDC advised people not to eat shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bells in those five states. The restaurant chain said Thursday that it had voluntarily removed lettuce from the implicated supplier in certain states and was removing it from the national supply chain indefinitely.
Lettuce served in other restaurants or sold at grocery stores is not affected, the CDC said.
“[W]e believe public health is a shared responsibility among restaurants, their suppliers, and authorities, and we are proud to have consistently acted quickly and proactively to protect our guests,” the restaurant chain said. “Taco Bell has taken precautionary action, and we encourage all relevant restaurants, retailers, and foodservice operators to do the same.”
According to the CDC, there have been more than 1,644 cases of cyclosporiasis linked to the outbreak in the five states, including 94 hospitalizations and no deaths.
The CDC noted that its case count includes only illnesses that have been confirmed by laboratory testing to be linked to the outbreak, not all cases of cyclospora that have been reported to the agency during that time.
The actual case count is likely even larger. Michigan itself had reported more than 5,000 cases as of Thursday, including 102 hospitalizations.
Cyclosporiasis is caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which spreads to people through food or water that has been contaminated with feces. It frequently causes bouts of watery diarrhea. Past outbreaks have been linked to lettuce, raspberries, basil, cilantro and snow peas.
The outbreak has unfolded months after the CDC partially dismantled a foodborne illness surveillance system originally implemented in the 1990s, removing six pathogens from the program’s core monitoring list, including Cyclospora.
The program, called FoodNet, is a collaboration between federal health agencies and 10 states that monitors laboratory-confirmed foodborne pathogens to help officials track and prevent food-related illnesses.
A CDC official said this week that the agency was still receiving relevant outbreak data from states, even though FoodNet no longer requires the reporting of Cyclospora. An expert told Healio that the changes to the decades-old system are likely having an impact on surveillance.
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