FDA: Mexico source of cyclospora outbreak

Diners at Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants in Iowa and Nebraska caught an intestinal illness tied to a rare type of parasite after eating eating salad mix that came from Mexico, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

The federal agency said its investigators traced the outbreak to four "illness clusters" of restaurants, which spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman later identified to CNN as Red Lobster and Olive Garden locations. The probe didn't find indications that any bags of salad mix with the parasite -- known as cyclospora -- were sold at U.S. grocery stores.

The tainted salad mix came from Taylor Farms de Mexico, "a processor of foodservice salads," according to the FDA.

Darden -- the parent company for Olive Garden, Red Lobster and other restaurant chains such as LongHorn Steakhouse -- described Friday's announcement from the FDA as "new information."

"Nothing we have seen prior to this announcement gave us any reason to be concerned about the products we've received from this supplier," Darden said in a statement, in which the company insisted "it is completely safe to eat in our restaurants."

Taylor Farms has been cooperating with U.S. officials, the FDA said, adding that tests will be conducted at the company's processing facility in Mexico "to try to learn the probable cause of the outbreak and identify preventive controls." The last inspection there, in 2011, turned no notable problems, according to the federal agency.

The company's CEO, Bruce Taylor, told CNN on Friday night that the company's plant in Mexico produced and distributed about 48 million servings of salads to thousands of restaurants in the Midwest and eastern United States this past June.

"We have an extensive testing program in Mexico to test water sources and raw product for coliforms, E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria," said Taylor. "All our tests have been negative and we have no evidence of cyclospora in our product."

As of Thursday, there had been 146 cases of cyclospora inspections reported in Iowa, according to that state's public health department. There were 82 reported cases in Nebraska.

Iowa health authorities said Thursday that the prepackaged salad mix of iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots and red cabbage was no longer in the state's supply chain.

Source: http://www.wdsu.com/news/health/FDA-Mexico-source-of-cyclospora-outbreak/-/9853288/21312164/-/4o49loz/-/index.html?absolute=true

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