The nation’s largest food distributor has immediately stopped carrying the nation’s scariest plant.
Well, sort of.
Sysco, the world’s largest broadline food distributor, has announced it will no longer buy iceberg lettuce from Mexico after the now-deadly cyclosporiasis outbreak. The Houston-based company’s CEO Kevin Hourican recently told Reuters it is not buying lettuce from Taylor Farms after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked the “explosive diarrhea” parasite to Taco Bell, who served lettuce from Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico.
“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.”
Hourican said Sysco initially stopped selling the Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce from Mexico back in mid-July just before learning Taylor Farms had already issued the recall. The company is now buying lettuce from the US however, consumer demand has gone down drastically.
“It’s a high quality, high integrity shop, but we’ve had to take actions,” Hourican told Reuters. “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.”
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal disease that causes diarrhea, severe cramping, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. It’s not typically life-threatening but has killed two people in Michigan who had “significant underlying health conditions,” according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
“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,” Hourican said. “Replacing the amount we buy elsewhere is the challenge, and it’s something that we’re working on.”
Taylor Farms also issued a voluntary recall on July 18, which included iceberg lettuce from Walmart urging folks to “discard it immediately and not consume it.” If you have symptoms, contact your doctor — especially if you ate shredded iceberg lettuce in the two weeks before you got sick.
Working together, the FDA and CDC said the outbreak now includes illnesses from nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Additionally, the recalled lettuce was distributed and sold in at least 27 states to consumers, restaurants and retailers.
Michigan alone reported a total of 12,218 where as of July 30, 193 had been hospitalized and two died.
The New York Post has reached out to Sysco and Taylor Farms for comment but has not heard back.
As the illness continues to ravage the US, sickening thousands of Americans, The Post recently revealed the steps to take in order to avoid the disease. According to standard public health guidelines, there are six measures to follow:
- Avoid pre-cut salad kits or vegetables: Select whole heads of lettuce or intact herbs rather than pre-cut, bagged salad mixes, which present much higher cross-contamination risks at processing facilities.
- Strip outer foliage: Remove and discard the outer two to three leaves of leafy greens before prepping or consuming.
- Wash all produce under water: Thoroughly rinse fresh berries, cilantro, and basil under pressurized, clean tap water—static soaking in a bowl will not remove it.
- Scrub firm produce: Use a clean produce brush to vigorously wash the rinds of melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes under running water before cutting into them.
- Apply heat: Cook your vegetables when possible. Applying high heat is the most reliable way to destroy the microscopic organism.
- Sanitize kitchen gear: Wash cutting boards, knives, and countertops with hot, soapy water after preparing raw fruits and vegetables to prevent cross-contamination to other items.
