FDA backtracks after Taylor Farms lettuce scare turns out to be a false alarm

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made an announcement regarding the Cyclospora outbreak on Sunday.

A recent health concern initially linked to lettuce from Taylor Farms may have been a false positive, according to the FDA. The federal agency released a statement on Sunday that effectively walks back a previous announcement regarding the outbreak.

“Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive,” they said.

Taylor Farms, the company at the center of the controversy, released a statement of its own.

Look:

“Today, the FDA apologized to us,” it began. “Yesterday, FDA informed Taylor Fresh Foods that one of its iceberg lettuce products from central Mexico had a ‘confirmed positive’ test for cyclospora. Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake, and this was a false positive. To be clear, at this moment, FDA has no identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.”

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“Acting on initial information provided by health officials, in an abundance of caution, we completed a voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico. Recalled product was limited to iceberg lettuce growin and processed in central Mexico,” the company continued. “All other Taylor Farms products, including all Taylor Farms brand products, are not involved in the recall.”

“Our thoughts remain with everyone who has fallen ill in this outbreak. We are committed to working with public health authorities as the ongoing outbreak investigation continues.”

“Cyclosporiasis has been linked to shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, leading to around 100 hospitalizations so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No deaths have been reported,” Fox Business reported.

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Sierra Marlee

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