Public health officials are investigating a major California-based producer of pre-packaged salads, Taylor Farms, that supplied iceberg lettuce to Taco Bell as a potential source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak, sources have told multiple news outlets.<\/p>\n
The parasitic disease has made thousands of people sick with debilitating bouts of diarrhea this summer. <\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> warned the residents of the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia against eating shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell locations in their area; the greens are linked to the cyclosporiasis outbreak. <\/p>\n More than 1,600 sick people in this outbreak cluster, including 94 people who were hospitalized, reported eating at Taco Bell locations within the five-related states. <\/p>\n Officials say they\u2019re also investigating outbreaks and illnesses of the parasitic disease across 34 Midwestern and Eastern states that are unrelated to this outbreak. Neither Taylor Farms nor the Food and Drug Administration immediately responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n In a statement, Taco Bell<\/a> said it has \u201ctaken immediate action to voluntarily remove potentially impacted lettuce from a supplier in select states. The affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Food and Drug Administration\u2019s traceback investigation has identified<\/a> the iceberg lettuce from a single supplier from Mexico. <\/p>\n The announcement comes after public health officials investigated Taco Bell locations in the Detroit-area after the chain voluntarily stopped selling lettuce<\/a>, cilantro, onion, pico de gallo and guacamole, \u201cdue to a nationwide recall.\u201d <\/p>\n The restaurant\u2019s reported supplier of greens, Taylor Farms, is a global producer of salads and other produce with production facilities in the United States \u2014 five of the 12 facilities<\/a> are in the Midwest and East Coast \u2014 Canada, Mexico and Western Europe, according to the company website<\/a>. The link to the farm was reported by the Washington Post and New York Times.<\/p>\n The Salinas Valley company has been the source of a previous cyclosporiasis outbreak in 2013. During the outbreak, restaurant-associated illnesses in the states of Iowa and Nebraska were linked to salad mix from Taylor Farms de Mexico in Guanajuato, Mexico, according to the CDC<\/a>. <\/p>\n