Dive Summary:
- On Tuesday, Iowa's Department of Inspections and Appeals said it believed an outbreak of Cyclospora that sickened 372 people across the U.S. was connected to a bagged salad mix containing iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots and red cabbage.
- The officials are refusing to release the name of the producer because the particular salad mix, being at least a month old now, "was gone by the time we even knew we had an outbreak going on" and because state law restricts that information from being released if there is no public health benefit.
- Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration say they don't have enough information to point a finger at a specific food in the outbreak, though 80% of those who fell ill reported eating the mix.
From the article:
... The FDA and CDC are working to " remove contaminated products from the market, and stop any further exposures," FDA spokeswoman Patricia El-Hinnawy said.
Food safety advocates say a "leafy greens code of silence" protects companies and keeps the public in the dark in food-borne illness outbreaks, in the words of Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. ...
