U.S. produce supplier Taylor Farms complained to White House and Food and Drug Administration officials about the government’s inspection process earlier
this month, a source familiar with the meeting said on Monday, as Michigan reported a spike in cases of a parasitic disease tied to the company’s lettuce from Mexico.
Consumers have been on edge for weeks about whether it is safe to eat lettuce served at restaurants and elsewhere due to uncertainty over what products may be making people sick with cyclosporiasis, an intestinal disease that ca
n cause explosive diarrhea. Questions persist, and many people have avoided fresh produce to sidestep potential infections.
An FDA investigation linked the outbreak to iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants sourced from privately held Taylor Farms’ operations in central Mexico. However, health officials are searching for other potential sources.
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, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said.
U.S. Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a letter that he launched an inquiry into Taylor Farms’ role in the o
utbreak and whether the company attempted to influence the FDA’s response.
“Taylor Farms donated millions to President Trump, met privately with the White House the night the FDA identified their lettuce as the source of this outbreak, an
d then reportedly tried to distance themselves from this outbreak,” Garcia said.
Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PRODUCER SUSPENDS MEXICAN OPERATIONS
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Taylor Farms has said it immediately removed all potentially affected products from the marketplace when questions arose about the source of the outbreak a
nd also voluntarily suspended production of all products at its facility in central Mexico.
The FDA said Taylor Farms agreed to remove affected produce following extensive discussions. But the company did not meet an established 24-hour time
frame for determining whether it would take voluntary action after the agency presented it with evidence, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Another person familiar with the matter said Taylor Farms requested a meeting and spoke with officials from the White House and the FDA. The source describ
ed the meeting as Taylor Farms complaining about the government’s inspection process.
Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the points raised by the two sources.
The White House is closely monitoring the investigation into the outbreak, spokesman Kush Desai said.
“Any notion that the White House or Trump administration would ever compromise on the health and safety of the American people is absolutely false,” he said.
“The FDA is conducting a thorough and evidence-based outbreak investigation, and has never ‘walked back’ anything regarding the overwhelming epidemio
logical evidence pointing to a shipment of shredded lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico.”
CENTRAL MEXICO CONTAMINATION FEARS GROW
The U.S. outbreak has resulted in 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases, with health authorities aware of more than 7,400 additional suspected cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan on Monday reported 9,253 cases, an increase of 1,077 cases since its last update on Friday. County health officials told Reuters they thought othe
r, unidentified items were making people sick besides Taylor Farms’ lettuce from Mexico.
“Certainly, it doesn’t tell the whole story with this one recall,” said Avani Sheth, chief medical health officer in Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit.
Removing products from central Mexico from supply chains should mitigate ongoing risks to consumers, said Gottlieb, the FDA’s former chief.
