FDA keeps Taylor Farms in focus after lettuce test false alarm
The agency says a false positive cyclospora result does not change its probe or Taylor Farms’ 27-state shredded lettuce recall.
By Deshawn Carter · Sports Writer
3 min read
The Food and Drug Administration says Taylor Farms remains under investigation in a growing cyclosporiasis outbreak, even after the agency determined that one lettuce sample had wrongly tested positive for the parasite linked to the illness.
The FDA said Monday that the false lab result does not alter the agency’s outbreak inquiry or the evidence behind Taylor Farms’ voluntary recall. The recall covers shredded iceberg lettuce distributed to 27 states and remains active, according to the agency.
The sample at issue was not from the lettuce already tied to the outbreak and recall, the FDA said. It came from a separate shipment collected during routine import checks.
The outbreak has been linked by investigators to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms facilities in central Mexico. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,600 cases had been confirmed as of Saturday in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
Investigators found that many people who became ill had eaten at Taco Bell locations that received Taylor Farms lettuce, according to public health officials cited in the investigation. Taco Bell said Saturday that it had pulled all Taylor Farms lettuce from its U.S. restaurants.
Company and FDA clash over apology claim
Taylor Farms said Sunday that the FDA had apologized over the false positive test result. On a Monday call, an FDA official disputed that the agency had issued an official apology.
Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to NBC News.
The FDA said Monday on X that the false-positive sample did not change the basis for the continuing investigation or the epidemiological evidence supporting Taylor Farms’ voluntary recall.
Why one lab result is not the whole case
Foodborne outbreak investigations do not rest on a single test, Donald Schaffner, a food microbiology professor and chair of the food science department at Rutgers University, told NBC News.
Schaffner said investigators weigh patient samples, interviews with people who became ill, receipts and supply-chain records to track where contaminated food may have originated.
In this outbreak, Schaffner said Taylor Farms remains implicated because people who reported eating at Taco Bell and consuming Taylor Farms lettuce became sick with the parasite. He cautioned that the link is statistical and does not by itself prove causation, but said the evidence was strong enough for the FDA and CDC to support the recall.
Schaffner also said detecting cyclospora in food is uncommon because, by the time officials investigate, the food has often already been eaten or has spoiled.
Don Stoeckel, an environmental microbiologist and associate at the Produce Safety Alliance, told NBC News that a true positive result would have helped confirm the case. He said the absence of a positive sample does not lessen the need to follow the CDC’s advice to avoid the products named in its outbreak investigation.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.