Taylor Farms on Friday expanded a voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce and salad mix products shipped to 27 states, including Mississippi, after a potential link to cyclospora, the company said.
The recall covers 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight brand names. Taylor Farms said the products were shipped as recently as Thursday and have “best by” dates as late as Aug. 3. The company published a list of affected products and lot codes on its website, it said.
Taylor Farms said the products were shipped to Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. “We are actively removing the implicated products,” the company said in a statement, adding it has stopped sourcing lettuce from an implicated lot in central Mexico.
Sysco, the nation’s largest food distributor, has halted distribution of all Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce products sourced from Mexico and told customers to dispose of them, the company said. Earlier this week, U.S. health officials identified lettuce from a supplier in Mexico as the source of cyclospora contamination in food served at Taco Bell restaurants in five Midwestern states, federal officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 1,645 people in the U.S. have been sickened this year and 141 hospitalized in outbreaks linked to cyclospora. The CDC said it is investigating more than 5,000 additional illnesses that may be linked to the parasite. The agency said typical symptoms include frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, stomach cramps, bloating, fatigue and fever; symptoms usually appear two to 14 days after exposure and can last for weeks.
Mississippi health officials reported five confirmed cases across the Delta, Gulf Coast and Pine Belt regions. The Mississippi State Department of Health held a news conference Friday in Jackson, where State Epidemiologist Dr. Renia Dotson urged residents to be mindful of what they eat and to report symptoms early. “There is no prophylactic treatment at this time,” Dotson said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
