July 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands, will stop using lettuce from a supplier the agency has linked to an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak.
The FDA’s statement came a few hours after Taco Bell said it had removed “potentially impacted lettuce” from a supplier in select states after conversations with public health officials.
“The affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states,” the company said.
The FDA said that along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is investigating an outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.
The FDA said that according to CDC data, five states have reported a total of 1,644 people infected with the parasitic intestinal illness who also reported exposure to Taco Bell.
There have been 94 hospitalizations from the cyclospora outbreak, and no deaths have been reported, the FDA added.
The FDA and Taco Bell did not name the supplier, but the food safety regulator said its traceback investigation identified a common supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used by Taco Bell locations where sick people ate before becoming ill.
The Washington Post reported earlier on Thursday that lettuce supplied to Taco Bell restaurants by California-based supplier Taylor Farms has been identified by investigators as a potential source of contamination in the outbreak.
Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
The FDA said it was working with the identified supplier to determine if potentially contaminated shredded iceberg lettuce remains on the market, and has initiated the collection of product samples for testing and analysis.
The outbreak, which began on May 1, has been concentrated in Michigan, with Ohio and New York also reporting a large number of infections. Michigan health officials reported 4,312 cases on Thursday.
While the U.S. has experienced cyclosporiasis outbreaks before, the scale and geographic spread of this year’s outbreak are significantly larger, prompting concern among health officials.
Earlier this week, Taco Bell said it had removed a limited number of ingredients from some restaurants as a precautionary measure.
Cyclosporiasis can be contracted by consuming food, typically raw fruits and vegetables or water contaminated with feces, and causes diarrhea, nausea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms.
(Reporting by Sanskriti Shekhar, Sumedha Mukherjee, and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Rashmi Aich)
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