Hold the lettuce: Updates on the 'explosive' cyclospora outbreak
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, I'm Flora Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Friday.
What is the cyclospora outbreak linked to Taco Bell lettuce?
Step away from the Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, says the FDA. An outbreak of foodborne illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora has been cropping up across the country, sickening thousands.
How many states and cases are involved in the cyclospora outbreak?
And after months of trying to track down the source, investigators have linked some cases to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied to Taco Bells in five states, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Washington Post broke the story and linked the lettuce to one company, Taylor Farms. Here to give us the latest on this investigation and to take us into the world of food detective work is Byron Chavez, a food safety expert from Rutgers University. Hey, Byron, welcome back to Science Friday.
Hey, happy to be here. Thanks for the invite.
Thank you for coming. Thousands of people have gotten sick. Many of the rest of us have been wondering what not to eat this summer.
Could the outbreak be multiple simultaneous outbreaks rather than one source?
I feel like this has been a real nail-biter. Has the cyclospora mystery been solved?
So not quite yet. We actually have today probably more questions than we did yesterday.
Oh, say more. Tell me.
Well, with this new development that lettuce might be implicated, then, you know, we have a number of other questions about how did contamination happen? Is this really a single source? Is potentially Taco Bell the only retail chain that is involved? Is any of this lettuce in the market right now?
Right.
Did contamination likely occur at the farm or during processing?
Because, you know, I know that the states called out by the FDA and CDC didn't include, for example, New York, where there have been a bunch of cases. So what does that mean?
Yeah, it probably means what we've been thinking about for the last couple of months, almost. It seems like this outbreak has been lingering for forever. But that there's actually more than one outbreak happening at the same time, right? So we finally have a lead about a proportion of the cases that might be associated with consumption of contaminated lettuce. But that doesn't mean that there are not other outbreaks happening simultaneously. And like you mentioned, there's five states associated with the lettuce one, but there's many other states. There's 34 states where people have reported getting sick, including New York. And so there might be a series of outbreaks happening.
So news outlets have been pointing to Taylor Farms. Does that suggest that the parasite came from processing or from the farm itself?
You know, I would be cautious about pointing towards a specific source right now, because, you know, as of Friday morning, I think it's too early to tell exactly where this is coming from. Now, what I would say is that cyclospora, it's not what we would typically call an environmental organism in food processing, right? So when the lettuce is getting shredded in a food facility and mixed with a lot of other lettuce coming from different places, it's It's not like this microbe is surviving in the processing environment.
Why has it taken so long for investigators to identify the source?
What is more likely to happen is that the microbe already came with the heads of lettuce that were introduced into processing facilities. So think about lettuce that got irrigated with contaminated water and stuff like that. So the more likely cause of direct contamination is irrigation water.
Why has it taken so long to figure this out?
Yeah, you know, epidemiologists are working really, really hard to figure that out themselves. I think that, again, there's this hypothesis that there's a series of outbreaks that are happening at the same time. And while some of the cases may be attributed to consumption of contaminated lettuce, there could be other cases associated with either recreational water or potentially other foods that are happening across the country.
Recreational water. Do you think it's a possibility that people are getting it from swimming?
I think that there's multiple hypotheses and recreational waters, despite what the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is saying, has been implicated in outbreaks of cyclosporiasis. And there's evidence, documented evidence from other places in the world, right?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–0:06
2
What is the cyclospora outbreak linked to Taco Bell lettuce?
0:06–0:21
3
How many states and cases are involved in the cyclospora outbreak?
0:21–1:03
4
Could the outbreak be multiple simultaneous outbreaks rather than one source?
1:03–1:38
5
Did contamination likely occur at the farm or during processing?
1:38–3:15
6
Why has it taken so long for investigators to identify the source?
3:15–6:03
7
How does cyclospora infect people and why is it hard to detect?
6:03–8:38
8
Why are bagged salads and shredded lettuce often implicated in foodborne outbreaks?
8:38–12:12
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Science Friday
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