Taylor Farms Cyclospora outbreak triples in size(efoodalert.com) |
Taylor Farms Cyclospora outbreak triples in size(efoodalert.com) |
In early July, Taco Bell pulled lettuce at all locations and discontinued using Taylor Farms as a supplier. The FDA claims to have tested lettuce from Taylor Farms and initially identified them as the source of the cyclospora outbreak - however, rapidly backtracked on July 19 by claiming that the test performed was a false positive.
The FDA's own timeline is here: https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investi...
What thickens the plot is Taylor Farms' actions with the current administration. Taylor Farms is a prominent donor to parties supporting food safety deregulation in the US. Immediately prior to the FDA claiming that the cyclospora test was a false positive, Taylor Farms held a meeting with White House officials to discuss what they claimed were "shortfalls" in the FDA's response: https://www.wired.com/story/diarrhea-outbreak-taylor-farms-m...
Taylor Farms' own safety record is rather checkered. This would make them the subject of nine recalls in fifteen years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Farms#Food_safety_and_r...
So, the lettuce was last washed before being shredded. Then it was shredded in machines or by hand or something. It may have been misted, I guess, like you see in some grocery stores, but the point is that there was ample opportunity for contamination by equipment, vessels, or utensils, in the processing facility, during or after washing the whole lettuce.
Do yourself a favor and get a CSA, a local meat supplier, and knowledge about eating with the seasons.
The whole food supply chain is lined with fecal parasites from field to Sysco sales reps.
For example, milk is pasteurized because dairies are too lazy careless to keep literal shit out of the milk. Sure, they filter out the chunks, but a huge number of pathogens remain.
When heated those cells die, but guess what? All of their cellular machinery is still present in the final product. It can’t infect you as such, but it sure as hell isn’t anything that you should be drinking.
Look up the USDA standards for contamination. Food production involves industrial processes with necessarily loose safety margins, due to the relative scale of operations. If a small farmer caused this outbreak, they would be burnt to the ground, but anyone think this will impact the guilty beyond a minor dip in stock price?
Those corps do not care one whit about individuals any more than Apple or Facebook cares about their customers, unless you count how it affects their next quarterly statements.
I wish, this was just a joke.