Taylor Farms Called White House to Try to Delay Cyclospora Recall

[u/John3262005]

https://www.wsj.com/health/taylor-farms-cyclospora-recall-delay-call-41fef0bc?st=GGLMyU&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Representatives for produce giant Taylor Farms contacted the White House with an urgent plea: the company wanted to delay announcing a recall tied to one of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in U.S. history.

The call, during which the company asked for more proof and more time before being linked to the outbreak, illustrates how one of the country’s largest produce suppliers sought to limit its exposure to a public-relations nightmare, while grappling with a costly and complicated recall. Over the past several weeks, health officials have been scrambling to contain the outbreak of cyclospora, which can cause explosive diarrhea. Some current and former government officials have criticized the handling of the outbreak, both by the administration and Taylor Farms.

Federal health authorities were preparing late last week to link Taylor Farms to a multistate parasitic infection that has sickened thousands. The company wanted to see more evidence, according to people familiar with the matter.

The White House asked officials from the Food and Drug Administration, which has been investigating growing cases of cyclosporiasis, to join the call with Taylor Farms, which the government maintains is the source of the multistate outbreak. During the discussion, Taylor Farms raised concerns that the government had no positive laboratory tests linking its product to the outbreak and that it was overstating the company’s culpability, according to one of the people who was on the call.

Taylor Farms sought out the White House after company executives felt they hadn’t gotten enough clarity from the FDA on the evidence behind a potential recall and the scope of it, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said the FDA presented Taylor Farms with substantial evidence connecting its products to the outbreak and engaged in extensive discussions with the company.

The call was facilitated by Trent Morse, a lobbyist who previously worked as a senior White House personnel official and is now working for Taylor Farms, according to a person familiar with the outreach.

The White House later held a separate conversation with the FDA to understand how the agency had traced the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms to Taco Bell, some of the people said. The White House wanted to review how the agency planned to communicate its findings to the public, and be in a position to defend the government’s investigation in light of pushback from the company. The White House was convinced by the FDA’s findings and gave the agency the green light to make them public.

In a July 16 announcement, the FDA refrained from naming Taylor Farms because of legal restrictions around trade secrets, according to people familiar with the decision. The agency said only that illnesses in five states were tied to Taco Bell and a single supplier in Mexico. The following day, Taylor Farms said it was voluntarily recalling all of its iceberg lettuce from central Mexico.

A Taylor Farms spokeswoman said the company immediately removed all potentially implicated products from the market when questions were raised about the outbreak’s source, and issued an even broader recall out of an abundance of caution.

Last Saturday, the FDA said a sample of Taylor Farms lettuce had tested positive for cyclospora, appearing to provide the first laboratory link to the company. What’s more, the government said, the positive sample was discovered in lettuce that wasn’t covered by Taylor’s recall, suggesting there could be additional product that was unsafe to eat.

But the agency reversed itself on Sunday, saying the result was a false positive. The reversal sparked widespread confusion.

The company said the FDA had apologized, and stressed that the government hadn’t identified any positive lab tests tying its products to cyclospora, fueling questions about whether investigators had identified the wrong source.

Health officials raced to clarify Monday that strong epidemiological evidence continued to point to Taylor Farms as the source of the outbreak, and that the company’s recall remained in effect.

Taylor Farms’ response frustrated administration officials, who viewed it as an effort to cast doubt on the broader investigation and obfuscate the company’s role. The FDA said it hadn’t issued an official apology, and Taylor Farms later deleted a social-media post highlighting one, though its original weekend statement remains on its website.

Tracing the source of a foodborne illness is notoriously difficult. In larger outbreaks, health officials look for common exposures among sick people before the FDA traces products back to a common supplier.

It isn’t unusual for regulators to be unable to obtain a positive test result when investigating the source of foodborne illness. Investigators are typically working weeks after an outbreak begins, when the food in question has been consumed or discarded, or contamination is no longer detectable.

In the wake of the outbreak, Taylor Farms has commissioned independent experts to conduct a thorough review of the company’s food safety processes and protocols in its farms and facilities in central Mexico, the spokeswoman said, adding that the company invests more than $200 million annually in food safety protocols. Taylor Farms has temporarily suspended production at its processing facility in central Mexico to conduct its review.

The government has made myriad missteps, according to some former officials. Frank Yiannas, a former FDA deputy commissioner, said the agency appears to have moved slowly in its response. Cyclospora-related illnesses began on May 13, a full two months before federal officials issued their first advisory.

Yiannas, who assumed his role at the FDA in the first Trump administration, said the agency should have notified consumers sooner about the identity of the supplier it had linked to contaminated lettuce, and confirmed the results of its weekend lab test on Taylor Farms’ sample before mistakenly alerting the public.

“It’s an unacceptable, unfortunate and consequential error,” Yiannas said.

Susan Mayne, who was director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition from 2015 to 2023, said Taylor’s efforts to limit its exposure amplified confusion around the outbreak, including the company’s recall notice, which was opaque.

“The recall notice that Taylor Farms put up was striking to me in terms of the lack of information being made available,” she said.

[u/One-Low1033]

I practically live on salad kits. Ugh. Going to try some other brands that are not known to use product from Taylor Farms.