The FDA finally traced the largest Cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history to a Mexican lettuce farm — after nearly 13,000 Americans fell ill, hundreds landed in hospitals, and two people in Michigan died. The parasite was found in wastewater and a drainage ditch at Taylor Farms de Mexico's supplier sites in Guanajuato, confirming what should have been caught before contaminated produce ever reached American shelves.
The outbreak sickened people across 21 states and led to 570 hospitalizations, according to The Guardian. Both deaths occurred in Michigan and involved people with significant underlying health conditions, Fox Business reported. The CDC declared the outbreak over on September 11. The FDA announced its findings Friday.
Here's what the agency found: two environmental samples tested positive for Cyclospora. One came from a wastewater tank at Taylor Farms' processing facility. The other came from a drainage ditch at an iceberg lettuce farm supplying the company. The FDA called this "strong epidemiological data" linking the outbreak to Taylor Farms de Mexico.
What the FDA couldn't explain is how the contamination actually occurred — a remarkable admission after an outbreak of this scale. Taylor Farms pushed back, telling Reuters the positive sample came from "discharged waste and sewer water outside of our processing facility" and that the independent grower where the ditch sample was taken "is no longer part of our supplier program." The company said its central Mexico facility remains closed while it implements new safety protocols.
The Guardian reported details that paint an even uglier picture of federal oversight. Mexico's own food safety authority conducted a separate investigation and said it found no Cyclospora in the lettuce or water at the facility. The FDA was also forced to retract a faulty test result that had incorrectly identified the parasite in a border sample of Taylor Farms lettuce. And the agency's trip to the Guanajuato farm was its first visit there in more than seven years, following a steep decline in international food safety inspections after Covid.
Seven years. That's how long American families were left trusting a federal agency that wasn't even showing up to inspect foreign produce. The FDA is confident all recalled lettuce is off U.S. shelves. That's cold comfort to the thousands who already ate it.
Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that causes watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, fatigue, and weight loss, according to the CDC. Some infections are asymptomatic. There is no domestic substitute for scrutiny when your food supply runs through another country's sewers.
The open question isn't whether Taylor Farms is responsible. It's why it takes 13,000 sick Americans and two deaths to get an FDA inspector on a plane to a farm he should have visited years ago.
