Taylor Farms, Cyclospora & How We Got Here

​For the last week, I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on regarding the current Cyclospora outbreak. I wrote a blog about chemicals in our produce. A supplement blog for the Cyclospora outbreak. And then a few days ago, the CDC apparently pinned the outbreak down to Taylor Farms. So this is what I have found out.

Taylor Farms is Headquartered in Salinas, California. The company was founded in 1995. And besides the U.S. they also have processing operations in Canada, Mexico & Western Europe. 

Taylor Farms produces a large assortment of fresh produce, including organic and non organic conventional salad kits, ready-to-eat vegetables, and meal prep items. And in fact, the company has been recognized as the first fresh food company to achieve true platinum certification for zero waste, which means it has achieved the highest recognized standard for sustainability.

So, after finding this all out, I started asking myself a lot of questions. If they won these awards for sustainability and if their produce is considered fresh, how did this Cyclospora outbreak happen?

What the news is reporting is that the FDA investigation has identified the Mexico division of Taylor Farms as their source of the Iceberg Lettuce outbreak. Dr Peter Chin Hong, a UCSF infectious disease specialist (who I see on my local news station all the time when stuff like this happens) said, "The parasite has to sit in the environment for more than a week sometimes two weeks under high temperatures to become infectious and make the spores. That's why the name is Cyclosporiasis."

As I mentioned in a previous blog, bagged lettuce poses a higher food safety risk than whole heads because during processing, leaves from multiple farms are combined and chopped, meaning a single contaminated batch can taint an entire production line. It sounds like that's what we are seeing in this case. The most common way to get infected with this parasite is to buy bagged lettuce. In fact, Cyclospora thrive in those bags, because the bags trap in heat, the chopped leaves release juices inside the damp, enclosed packaging, the lettuce begins to sweat and the parasite is like, "Hello, Let's party!"

Most people know by now that Cyclospora grows when crops are contaminated by human feces in the fields. This usually happens through contaminated irrigation water used to water the non organic crops. NowI have seen people on social media say, this is happening because farmers are pooping in their fields.   Now as I stated before, I’m not saying this doesn't happen on occasion. But large scale outbreaks like this tend to happen during major events like a flooding event or sewage backing up into the water system that is watering the crops. And guess what? I simply Googled, "has there been flooding recently in Mexico near fields that grow lettuce." And guess what I found? This is what Google said: "Yes, significant flooding and heavy storms have recently impacted agricultural regions in central Mexico, causing damage to lettuce and other leafy green crops."

Now, I get a lot of shit (pun intended) from people who say, there is no difference between organic and non-organic veggies when I mention organic veggies tend to be safer (not full proof but safer). It's all a scam. They just want to charge us more money. I've heard it all. While I can't change people's minds on this, I will state facts.

From my research, water treatment systems that rely on sedimentation and filtration (these systems are used in organic vegetable fields) are more effective to fight these types of parasitic outbreaks but systems relying on chemical treatment (non organic fields) are not. Cyclospora parasites are very difficult to wash off once they attach to veggies like lettuce. And insecticides and herbicides don’t work against this parasite. 

So what it is looking like is the non organic versions of Iceberg Lettuce were tainted with fecal contaminated watering systems, the parasite attached to the lettuce, since it didn't go through a filtration process like organic fields, it was then put into these bags, the bags got hot during transport, the parasites grew, the restaurants put this lettuce on our food or the grocery stores sold it to us, a week or so went by, people started reporting 2 -3 week bouts with explosive diarrhea and now America needs to buy more toilet paper. And I can hear my mother's voice in my head saying, "I told you that triple washed lettuce couldn't be trusted. You still need to wash your lettuce!" While she is correct, in this case simply washing my lettuce wouldn't have made a difference because water alone doesn't remove the parasites. But I have never won a fight with my mother so let's keep this one between all of us. 

The good news is that large chains like Taco Bell, have been proactive in temporarily removing lettuce from some of their menus. For whatever reason, Taco Bell seems to be experiencing the most flack for using Taylor Farms lettuce (and honestly I don't know why). The reason is Taylor Farms distributes this bagged lettuce to McDonalds, Chipotle, Walmart, Safeway, Kroger's and a ton of other large chains. Maybe we'll know more about why Taco Bell is being seen as the bad guy when they don't own lettuce fields. But right now, it's a mystery to me. 

Also remember, since it takes about 2 weeks for the Cyclospora parasite to affect our systems. So some people still have no idea they have been infected. This parasite causes intestinal distress such as: Nausea, diarrhea and vomiting and can last a few weeks (sorry for the bad news). So be on the lookout in case you've eaten non organic iceberg lettuce in the past few weeks. 

So what is the best thing we can do right now: 

1. If you really need to eat lettuce (especially Iceberg), try to buy organic (less risk but still be cautious). Honestly, I'd stay away from all lettuce right now unless it's a local grower. 

2. DO NOT BUY ANY BAGGED LETTUCE! I can't be any clearer. And in my household, after knowing what I know now, I'm never buying lettuce in a bag again. 

3. If you purchase head lettuce, take off the outer leaves 

4. Wash those veggies with an organic veggie wash

I hope this helps everyone. Everyone be safe.