By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Sysco, the biggest U.S. food distributor, has stopped buying iceberg lettuce from Mexico due to the U.S. cyclosporiasis outbreak, CEO Kevin Hourican said on Tuesday.
The move shows how the largest U.S. outbreak of cyclosporiasis on record has forced adjustments to the food supply chain as cases of the disease continue to mount.
An investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked the outbreak to iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants and sourced from privately held Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico. However, authorities are still looking for other potential sources.
“We’re not buying iceberg lettuce from them, and we’re not buying it from Mexico,” Hourican said in an interview. “To the degree that we can further diversify our procurement, that is something we’re actively working on.”
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal disease that causes explosive diarrhea and is generally not life-threatening. Michigan, which has been hit hard by cases, said on Monday that two people died who had significant underlying health conditions that may have been affected by the disease and related dehydration.
People contract cyclosporiasis after eating food or drinking water contaminated with human feces containing the microscopic parasite Cyclospora.
In mid July, Sysco said it halted sales and distribution of Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce from Mexico. Sysco did a voluntary recall at the time and then Taylor Farms notified the distributor of an official recall, Hourican said.
“It’s a high quality, high integrity shop, but we’ve had to take actions,” Hourican said. “We’ve moved source of product away from them to the degree that we can. Because they’re really big, you can’t just turn it off overnight.”
Last week, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said some large retailers and restaurants were shunning produce from other growers in central Mexico out of fear about broader contamination of the region’s farms.
Sysco said it was now buying iceberg lettuce grown in the U.S. The company has been able to find the supply it needs as the cyclosporiasis outbreak has reduced consumer demand for lettuce, Hourican said.
“Taylor Farms is the largest producer – they’re the biggest – and if we’re not able to buy from them, we can easily go elsewhere,” he said. “Replacing the amount we buy elsewhere is the challenge, and it’s something that we’re working on.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose surveillance lags state reporting by several weeks, has recorded 10,468 laboratory-confirmed cyclosporiasis cases nationwide, along with more than 12,255 suspected cases not yet confirmed through laboratory testing, according to its website.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Sanjeev Miglani and Lincoln Feast)
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