What shoppers need to know<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what\u2019s worth, I haven\u2019t changed my diet significantly,\u201d said Dr. Zoe Weiss, director of microbiology at Tufts Medical Center. <\/p>\n
Weiss pointed out that federal officials have linked the national outbreak to iceberg lettuce from Mexico. Taylor Farms, a California-based produce company identified as a likely distributor of contaminated food<\/a>, recalled all lettuce sourced from central Mexico <\/b>last month.<\/p>\n So, is it as simple as skipping anything with a Taylor Farms logo at the grocery store?<\/p>\n Not necessarily. For one thing, investigators have yet to definitively trace the source of outbreak to Taylor Farms \u2014 and plenty of the company\u2019s products<\/a> are, in all likelihood, quite safe.<\/p>\n Investigators are yet to rule out other producers, or other produce items, too. There are numerous points along the supply chain where products are packed, washed, and repacked \u2014 any of which could be the source of parasites for any given product.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a misconception [when] we walk into a store and buy, let\u2019s say, mixed greens,\u201d said David Lennarz, co-founder of food safety compliance firm Registrar. \u201cYou think, \u2018Oh, that came from a farm, they packed it, it came to my store, and boom, I buy it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But in fact, the supply chain for food \u2014 and for produce in particular \u2014 is \u201cincredibly complex,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is long, there are many players, and currently, there are very few ways that traceability is in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say investigators haven\u2019t made progress in tracking the outbreak. But it\u2019s unclear how long it will take before the source of the outbreak is definitively identified and all the contaminated products are recalled. <\/p>\n The optimistic view, Lennarz said, is that pinpointing the source is a matter of \u201cweeks, not months.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow, obviously, once you find the problem, you have to fix it,\u201d he added. \u201cAt the farm level or the packing house level, that often involves shutting down until [investigators] identify what\u2019s causing the contamination, and how to eliminate it.\u201d<\/p>\n Weiss said it may be hard to immediately gauge the effectiveness of any recall notices, since symptoms of cyclosporiasis can manifest as late as two weeks after infection. <\/p>\n \u201cThe caseload might look like it\u2019s rising before it comes down again,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to see an immediate improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n There are some experts, like Boston-based dietitian Kate Scarlata, who are not willing to take chances. For the time being, store-bought raw lettuce is effectively \u201coff the table\u201d for her, she said Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere should be some thoughtfulness to shopping \u2014 not fear, but thoughtfulness,\u201d she said. \u201cPersonally, I would not encourage much in the realm of raw, uncooked produce at this time. I would just cook your vegetables right now until we have a better sense that this is not on the rise and that it\u2019s on the decline, and that we\u2019ve caught all the things that potentially got contaminated.\u201d<\/p>\n Weiss, though, suggested there may be more risk involved in the supermarket than people realize.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s possible that the lettuce recall takes care of the lettuce problem, but there are other potential avenues of infection that we haven\u2019t fully pinned down yet,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think it\u2019s practical for people just to not eat produce.\u201d<\/p>\n For that reason, experts say one of the best practices is simply to be more informed: Be on the lookout for recalled products and avoid products without a clearly identified source. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat we should be doing is looking to the public health advisories for where there are recalls and avoiding recalled food,\u201d Weiss said.<\/p>\n Normal safety precautions like washing and rinsing food won\u2019t completely rid infected produce of cyclospora parasites, but it can help reduce their abundance or concentration.<\/p>\n Be cautious, but know that nothing is risk free<\/p>\n It\u2019s not entirely unreasonable, Weiss added, for diners to be picky with fast food restaurants and other establishments where food sourcing isn\u2019t necessarily clear \u2014 \u201cout of an abundance of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n Shoppers may also want to steer clear of bagged \u201cspring mixes\u201d or assorted leafy greens, since such offerings are usually packed with lettuce from multiple farms or packing houses.<\/p>\n \u201cThat introduces more complexity,\u201d Lennarz said. \u201cIf you have a product that has four different \u2018ingredients,\u2019 so to speak \u2014 if one of them is contaminated, that\u2019s the one that can sicken you. Even [if] the three others were fine.\u201d<\/p>\n And while <\/b>there\u2019s no way to guarantee that locally grown produce is risk-free, experts said those products are likely much safer than foodstuffs sourced from a large supply chain.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t say that getting something at a farmers market is definitely without any risk,\u201d Scarlata said. \u201c[But] it\u2019s not this big commercial operation where there are 7,000 points a parasite could get in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n What health experts do warn against is shifting your diet too much out of fear of contracting cyclosporiasis. There are plenty of alternatives to bagged, shredded iceberg lettuce that don\u2019t involve turning to the carnivore diet, Scarlata said.<\/p>\n \u201cMake your frozen berry smoothie with your Greek yogurt, and still get that delicious fiber that nourishes your gut, keeps your immune system in check,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t use this as an excuse to just go eat French fries and and chips and packaged crackers because you can\u2019t eat lettuce.\u201d<\/p>\n Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq<\/a> and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n