Taylor Farms contacted the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement tied to a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands across the United States, an unusual request that former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb called not standard operating procedure.
The voluntary recall involved iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico. The FDA initially reported that lettuce outside the recall tested positive for cyclospora before retracting the statement as a false positive. Taylor Farms apologized on its website, noting the agency had not identified a single positive product test. The outbreak has drawn scrutiny to industry consolidation's impact on food safety, as Taylor Farms and major distributors have expanded through acquisitions.
The episode unfolds against a backdrop of reduced federal health capacity, with the CDC dropping mandatory cyclospora tracking and FDA inspections falling sharply over the past decade.