Federal and Michigan officials had begun investigating the Mexican-American style fast-food chain earlier this week, the Washington Post reported, but reports of Taylor Farms’s implication in the outbreak first broke Thursday evening. The investigators have been probing what has caused the uptick in cyclosporiasis cases across the United States, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded at least 1,645 cases this year.The nonfatal gastrointestinal illness causes severe diarrhea, loss of appetite, weight loss, cramping, nausea, and fatigue. It is often contracted by consuming food or water contaminated by the cyclospora cayetanensis parasite. While cases of the infection typically rise during the summer months between May and August, this year’s number of reported cases is six times higher than the year-to-date number from last year.
Taco Bell released a statement on Thursday announcing they removed possibly affected lettuce from “a supplier” without naming Taylor Farms.“Based on ongoing conversations with public health officials, and out of an abundance of caution, Taco Bell has taken 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,” Taco Bell said in a statement.The Washington Examiner has reached out to Taylor Farms for comment.The reported cyclosporiasis cases have largely been concentrated in Michigan, where over 4,300 cases had been reported as of Thursday to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC, which has only recorded between 501 and 900 reported cases, noted that state agencies would have the most up-to-date data, given the CDC’s own assumed six-week lag between its reporting and illness onset. The CDC has said at least 141 people have been hospitalized nationally with the illness.Affected Taco Bell locations have been pinpointed in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.TACO BELL BEING INVESTIGATED FOR CYCLOSPORIASIS OUTBREAK IN MICHIGAN“The signal we have gotten is that there is a very high percentage of people who got sick at Taco Bell, and when investigators asked what their menu items were in common, lettuce came up frequently,” an anonymous source told the Washington Post.Cyclosporiasis outbreaks in the past have been tied to imported produce such as raspberries, cilantro, mesclun lettuce, snow peas, and basil, according to the CDC.
