The cyclosporiasis outbreak impacting the U.S. produce market and leaving customers at risk of explosive diarrhea has not significantly affected the items they buy or how much produce they’re selling, New York City shoppers and grocery store employees have told amNewYork.
What troubled many, however, has been the lack of clarity about how the outbreak started, and what products are most responsible.
Taylor Farms, the produce company at the center of the investigation into the national cyclosporiasis outbreak, issued a voluntary recall of some products, which did not appear to apply to products in New York State, but the nationwide spike in cases raised questions among some.
Sam Watson, was shopping in Brooklyn on Tuesday and she told amNewYork that she felt like she had relatively clear information about what to do during the outbreak.
“ I feel like it’s not crazy concerning,” said Watson, who is also pregnant. “We haven’t really changed too much about our food purchasing, just being extra careful to wash everything, like, three times with vinegar and baking soda [as] my mom said.”
She said that she has to be very conscious about what she consumes anyway.
“[I’m] just being a little bit more careful with salads,” Watson said. “But you have to be careful about that with pregnancy anyway.”
Over the weekend, an exposure tracing kerfuffle, followed by a dispute over public information, caused some confusion about the outbreak’s origin and subsequent investigation.
Following an announcement that the FDA had traced the nationwide outbreak to popular salad kit producer and lettuce distributor, Taylor Farms, the federal government rolled back its statements about testing. It said Sunday that a test showing the presence of Cyclospora in Taylor Farm iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico was actually a false positive.
The Salinas, CA, based company said Sunday that the FDA “apologized” for the false positive, and said “at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.”
A back and forth ensued, with the FDA saying that, despite a false positive, there was ample evidence to connect the outbreak to the Taylor Farms Central Mexico iceberg lettuce. Taylor Farms then posted on Monday what it called a “summary of the facts” to clear up any confusion about its cooperation with health officials.
Taylor Farms has not responded to a request for comment.
New Yorkers say they ‘don’t want to be an experiment’ in cyclospora outbreak
For Marc Plaskett, the guessing game wasn’t worth it. Plaskett told amNewYork that one of his friends was diagnosed with the foodborne illness cyclosporiasis early on in the outbreak and that he didn’t want to go through the prolonged, intense diarrhea that his friend experienced.
Plaskett said that one of his staples on his shopping trips is an arugula, spinach blend, but he’s forgoing it on Tuesday to protect against possible exposure to cyclosporiasis.
“ I’m just taking my vitamins and I’m avoiding greens,” he said.
Plaskett told amNewYork that even if he contracted the parasite, he wasn’t very concerned with dying, but that he did worry about being in “extreme agony.”
“ I don’t want to really be an experiment,” Plaskett said. “I don’t want to test out the different lettuces and find out the hard way, and then I end up with the parasite.”
Other shoppers told amNewYork that they felt like their general eating habits didn’t leave much room for exposure to the parasite. One shopper, James, who declined to provide his last name, picked up fresh organic herbs while telling amNewYork that his lifestyle didn’t bring him into contact with most of the produce he’d heard was at risk for Cyclospora.
“ I always stay away from bagged produce anyway,” he said. “So, I kind of related it to that.”
Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy for the Consumer Federation of America said that Taylor Farms’ reaction to the outbreak seemed “ like a very cynical response.”
Gremillion wrote an article for the Consumer Federation of America Tuesday, criticizing Taylor Farms’ recall list and details for being confusing and ambiguous for using undefined abbreviations in consumer facing information.
“Taking this recall notice and communications at face value if you are a consumer in New York, there’s not, not anything you need to do,” Gremillion said.
However, Gremillion said that for folks wanting to be cautious, “at this point, I’d be comfortable telling people maybe just avoid Taylor Farms.”
New York State Department of Health officials told amNewYork that this year’s outbreak in New York was not “a major deviation from the norm” and that it was continuing to investigate the outbreak, interview people who had tested positive for the parasite and communicate with the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
“The New York State Department of Health takes the spread of diseases seriously and works with federal partners and local health departments to identify potential outbreaks and provide guidance on prevention and treatment,” A NYSDOH spokesperson said. “While cyclosporiasis is generally not life-threatening, as many people with healthy immune systems recover without treatment, the Department encourages all New Yorkers to be aware of the best practices to prevent cyclosporiasis and other infections common in the summer months.”